The European Committee of the Regions (CoR) will vote on the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA) at its plenary session on Thursday 16 March. While supporting the objectives pursued by the European Commission, the Opinion carried by Mark Speich (EPP, German) expresses a number of reservations.
EU competences
In particular, the rapporteur regrets that the role of the regions in “regulating and supporting the media and cultural sectors” is not further recognised. More broadly, like MEPs or Member States before him, he questions the competences of the EU (see EUROPE 13115/17, 13116/19, 13073/25).
In essence, he considers the legal basis of the EMFA, namely Article 114 TFEU on the Single Market, to be questionable. Not only do media companies belong to the single market, but a “uniform ‘internal market for media services’ should not be assumed”, and the media also have a function which goes beyond their mere economic dimension. However, he reminds us that “safeguarding media freedom and pluralism is the responsibility of the Member States”.
The rapporteur thus calls for “caution”: media harmonisation and regulation at EU level could lead to perverse effects, including on “the preservation of cultural diversity” and on “media pluralism, especially on a regional and local level”, that might arise if a “purely internal market perspective is applied”. He also warns of the “potential negative effects of over-regulation on the well-established media systems”. For him, a “subsidiarity, proportionality and multilevel governance are key principles [...] and that the legal act of a Directive would better serve these principles”.
Reviewing the population criterion for state advertising
The text also makes recommendations on transparency requirements in the allocation of expenditure for state advertising, which in the Commission’s proposal, only apply to territorial entities with more than one million inhabitants.
However, the exemption is “non-applicable to a number of smaller EU Member States, thus creating a de facto loophole to avoid transparency”, he warns. He therefore proposes lowering the threshold to 100,000 inhabitants, but invites the Commission to “consider the population criterion in conjunction with the definition of a minimum annual spending threshold” to avoid “a disproportionate administrative burden”.
Finally, Mr Speich called for “special attention” to be paid to the independence of the European Board for Media Services vis-a-vis the Commission, or to take into account, as well, the consequences of a takeover of a media company at local level. To consult the Opinion: https://aeur.eu/f/5r9 (Original version in French by Hélène Seynaeve)