Coming to confront the newly elected or re-elected MEPs on Wednesday 4 September, the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology (DG CONNECT), Roberto Viola, refused to give too much detail on the upcoming digital work in the field.
He did not therefore give details regarding the act on digital services, nor the regulation on artificial intelligence announced in its political guidelines by President-elect Ursula von der Leyen. His speech to the European Parliament's Committee on Education and Culture focused mainly on the Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMS).
Guidelines on audiovisual in preparation
The AVMS Directive (2018/1808), adopted in spring 2019 by the EU Council and Parliament, aims to tackle new media such as YouTube and Netflix, introduce stricter advertising rules and support creativity in Europe through obligations to promote European works (see EUROPE 12036/7).
“Our role is to monitor the transposition of the directive, which has a deadline of September 2020, and to facilitate its implementation by establishing guidelines”, commented Roberto Viola. These guidelines, he continued, will address three questions: – allow the identification of social media that provide, as an “essential functionality”, user-created programmes and videos and are therefore covered by the Directive; – help to account for the presence of 30% of European works in the catalogue of on-demand audiovisual media services in a way, said Viola, that is “simple, clear and leads to a uniform interpretation”; – make it possible to identify when small businesses should benefit from derogations.
Other projects
Following questions from MEPs, Roberto Viola also referred to the initiative to digitise cultural heritage through 3D technology, which is already the subject of a technical group, but which will only really be implemented under the next multiannual financial framework (Digital Europe) (see EUROPE 12232/15).
He also answered questions from MEPs on net neutrality, after a progress report concluded that there was no need to review the current rules. “We evaluated this framework with telecom regulators and concluded that the regulation works well, that it is suitable for 5G”, he said. In response to criticism from MEPs about an April open letter co-signed by 31 NGOs, he continued: “Our rules are certainly not perfect, but they are the best in the world. Would reopening this text to tackle ‘zero rating’ result in a better product or a worse one?”, he wondered, referring to the practice whereby an operator offers a limited data package while giving unlimited access to certain services.
Finally, he recalled that inter-institutional negotiations on some flagship programmes, such as Creative Europe, were about to start. According to our information, the trilogues are scheduled to start at the end of September-early October. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)