On Friday 12 March, the EU Council’s Audiovisual Working Party discussed EU Council draft conclusions on the European Action Plan presented by the Commission in early December to ‘Support Recovery and Transformation’ of the media sector (see EUROPE 12615/2).
The text currently being drafted by the EU Council - of which EUROPE has obtained a copy - is similar to that of the Commission, advocating, in particular, pluralism and independence of the media, at a time when these are under threat in several Member States (see EUROPE 12675/7).
“Support for the media sector must not undermine the principles of editorial independence, media freedom and artistic freedom and should promote freedom of expression, pluralism and diversity of content”, the draft conclusions state.
The latter, like the Commission’s Action Plan, also addresses the financial difficulties faced by many media in the EU.
The EU Council is expected to, for example, call on Member States and the Commission to put in place a legislative framework to enable media players to recover from the crisis caused by the pandemic by facilitating “short-term” access to public financial support, including through the rapid adaptation of EU State Aid rules.
The draft conclusions also suggest that Member States continue to exchange information and best practices on public support measures for the audiovisual sector.
Finally, it underlined “the relevance and importance of all the actions” of the plan presented by the Commission. Of the ten actions, the draft conclusion welcomes, in particular, the action to promote the creation of a media data space “as a common European infrastructure” and the action to develop a set of media literacy tools. (Original version in French by Agathe Cherki)