The temptation was too strong: although the EU member states were normally supposed to limit themselves to adopting a progress report at the Sport and Culture Council on Tuesday 22 November, more than half of them ultimately spoke on the question of the revised Audiovisual Media Services directive.
In total, 16 member states spoke on this legislative proposal, which seeks to develop a fairer environment between traditional and other media, as well as stimulate creativity in Europe.
The main bone of contention involved the question of identifying reference countries. The proposal maintains the “country of origin” rule when deciding on the law applicable to a service provider. Nonetheless, it did explain that when the latter makes publishing decisions in a country where it does not have its registered head office, it is the law of the country where “the majority of its employees are involved in audiovisual media services activities” (Article 2) that applies. This solution is unthinkable for Luxembourg and Ireland, which are both known for their accommodating tax systems.
The proposal also suggests authorising member states to impose financial contributions (direct investment or deductions allocated to national cinematographic funds) from video on demand (VOD) services that are covered within their scope, as well as, in certain conditions, those that are established in another member state but which target their respective public. This provision is supported by France but rejected by the Netherlands.
The Dutch Secretary of State for Education and Culture, Sander Dekker, said “The impact study does not suggest deductions according to the country targeted. This idea is moving away from the principle of origin… We think it is contrary to the better regulation principle because it will increase fragmentation, whilst restricting development and innovation”. Ireland requested that rules on deductions are also applied to linear services offering the same services as VOD.
With regard to the other provisions, Finland and United Kingdom both oppose the idea of compelling VOD providers, such as the US companies Netflix and Amazon Prime to broadcast at least 20% of European content. Spain called for this quota to be increased to 30%, France and Greece wanted it to be raised to 40% and Romania wanted 50%.
On the question of advertising, Romania and Portugal both criticised the European Commission proposals to allow channels to interrupt their programmes every 20 minutes instead of the current 30 minutes and extend advertising spots by applying the current 20% benchmark per hour for periods ranging from 7 to 23 hours. This provision, however, was supported by Luxembourg.
Germany opposed the idea of officially setting up the European Regulators Group for Audiovisual Medias (ERGA), which currently operates as a Commission experts’ group. Greece called for its scope to be limited to supervision and coordination.
On the subject of viewer protection, France and Romania asked for the subject of terrorism to be covered by the new directive, whilst Finland called for the freedom of expression to be protected. Spain and Austria requested more concrete elements regarding the legal effects of co-regulation and self regulation encouraged by the proposal.
At the end of the discussion, the Council adopted the report drafted by the Slovak Presidency (see EUROPE 11671). Marek Madaric, the Slovak Minister stated, “It is normal that dissent appears at the time of the progress report between the more liberal and more conservative countries”. Commissioner Gunther Oettinger indicated that it should be possible to reach a common position at the Council during the Maltese Presidency beginning on 1 January 2017. He explained that “As the European Parliament is expected to reach its position in February, the trilogues (inter-institutional negotiations, Ed) should be able to start in March”.
The progress report adopted by the Council is available at the following address: http://data.consilium.europa.eu/doc/document/ST-13624-2016-REV-1/en/pdf (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)