Brussels, 16/10/2013 (Agence Europe) - On 16 October, the General Court of the EU rejected (ruling T-275/11) the action lodged by French private television channel TF1 to have annulled the Commission decision that the long-term funding mechanism of France Télévisions, notified by the French government in 2009, constitutes state aid compatible with the internal market.
This mechanism was put in place by the Fillon government as part of the reform of public broadcasting. It provided permanent, multiannual public financing (€450 million in 2009 and over €1 billion for the period from 2010 to 2012) to compensate for losses of income resulting from the phasing out of advertising on the six public France Télévisions channels from 2009. At the same time, the government introduced a tax on advertisements payable by all the other televised channels and a tax on electronic communications payable by all electronic communications operators.
The Commission authorised the budgetary grant, holding that it was compatible with the internal market, given that its annual amount was proportionate with the net public service costs of France Télévisions and the commitment of the French authorities not to affect to this aid the revenue from the two newly introduced taxes (see above). It decided, too, that the control mechanisms to prevent any overcompensation had been sufficiently effective and transparent. TF1 brought the present action before the Court with a view to obtaining annulment of the Commission decision
In its judgment, the General Court rejects all the arguments put forward by TF1. Thus: - no hypothecation could be established between the aid in question and the new taxes: the Commission rightly held that the taxes were not an integral part of the aid and were not, therefore, one of its arrangements and could exclude the taxes from investigation of compatibility of the aid with the internal market; - the Commission decision is sufficiently well-founded and clearly and comprehensively shows the reasoning on which it based its finding that there was not in the present case a risk of overcompensation of the net costs of the public service mission of France Télévisions; - in the examination of the compatibility of the aid, the Commission had the right not to take account of the economic efficiency of France Télévisions in the performance of its public service mission. Welcoming the judgment, the Commission said it confirmed the correctness of its approach in examining the state aid to public broadcasting. (FG/transl.fl)