Brussels, 17/06/2013 (Agence Europe) - Insistent on the total protection of the cultural exception, France has obtained the exclusion of audiovisual services from the scope of negotiations.
After 12 hours of intense bargaining, European trade ministers approved the negotiating mandate on 14 June that is to be given to the European Commission to negotiate the transatlantic trade and investment partnership (TTIP) agreement with the USA. The mandate comprises a decision from the Council and a decision from the member states authorising the opening of negotiations, and negotiating directives, which cover three domains - market access, regulatory issues and non-tariff barriers, and rules.
In order to reach unanimity the Council agreed, as France demanded, to exclude the audiovisual sector from the mandate. The Commission will, however, have the opportunity to make recommendations before further negotiating mandates are granted - negotiating mandates on which the 27 EU member states will decide by unanimity.
France did not give way. Isolated with Belgium and Romania, and threatening to use its veto, France won the concession that all audiovisual services - cinema, television, radio and music (including on the internet) - be excluded from the negotiations. An indirect contribution from US President Barack Obama on Friday evening, forewarning in a preparatory video-conference for the G8 that the exclusion of audiovisual services was not welcome, pushed the German and British ministers to reject a compromise reached at the end of the afternoon between the French minister, Nicole Bricq, and the president of the Council, Irish minister Richard Bruton, which favoured Paris. As proposed by the Commission, Germany and the UK wanted to include audiovisual services in the mandate, so as not to give any pretext to Washington for refusing to negotiate on firmly closed sectors - like air and maritime transport, public procurement and financial services.
France, however, was unyielding. As well as broadcasting quotas, subsidies and tax breaks for European audiovisual creation, France wanted to prevent American giants - like Google - from taking control of the young European services market on the internet (for example, videos on demand). Besides the total exclusion of all audiovisual services, Bricq obtained a block on the revision clause which will allow the Commission “to come back to the Council with additional negotiating directives” before the Commission can negotiate on this excluded sector with the Americans, as European Commissioner for Trade Karel De Gucht explained on Friday evening. A possible negotiation, at a later stage, on audiovisual services will require unanimous agreement from the member states - and France will most definitely vote “no”, Bricq warned.
Barroso tackles Hollande. The EU is therefore now ready to begin negotiations with the US. The Commission will negotiate on behalf of the EU and its member states, keeping the Council's trade policy committee and the European Parliament regularly informed. The final agreement will be concluded by the Council and the member states after obtaining the consent of the European Parliament.
After their official launch by President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy, President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso and US President Barack Obama on the sidelines of the G8 summit at the beginning of this week in Lough Erne, the negotiations could start in mid-July - but they will be very difficult due to the differences of opinion on numerous issues (such as agriculture, GMOs, phytosanitary standards, public procurement, transport services and data protection). In addition, negotiating convergence and harmonisation between the regulations on either side of the Atlantic will take much time and energy. Although De Gucht would like to conclude before the end of his mandate at the end of 2014, the negotiations could well go on longer.
While he was very pleased at the approval given by the 27 EU member states on Friday - speaking of the cheapest recovery plan imaginable (a Commission study calculates the potential gain in GDP from the agreement as €86 billion for the EU) - Barroso nevertheless criticised France's resolve on Monday 17 June to exclude the audiovisual sector from the mandate, describing the French attitude as “reactionary” in an interview in the Herald Tribune. Those defending the cultural exception have “no understanding of the benefits that globalisation brings also from a cultural point of view, also in terms of opening horizons and broadening our perspectives and also the sentiment of belonging to the same mankind, which I think is a very important concept against all forms of narrow nationalism and protectionism”, Barroso concludes. (EH/transl.fl)