The Member States’ Deputy Ambassadors to the European Union (Coreper 1) prepared, on Wednesday 3 May, the EU ‘Education, Youth, Culture and Sport’ Council (EYCS Council) on 15 and 16 May. On the menu: the European Youth Area, exiled artists, respect for fundamental rights in sports... but also the progress made on the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA).
While continuing to hope that a general approach can be reached by the end of June, the Swedish Presidency of the EU Council presented its progress report.
European Board for Media Services
Regarding the creation of a new European Board for Media Services, replacing the current ERGA, Sweden claims that an agreement “is very close”. Member States agree, for example, that it should act as a “facilitator” to issue non-binding opinions and mediate between national regulators. Furthermore, they believe that its role should be limited to the audiovisual media, and not to the press.
Member States have also introduced amendments to ensure the independence of the Board from the European Commission (see EUROPE 13105/20, 13073/25).
Rights and duties of the media
On the issue of the rights and duties of the media, including public service media, the Swedish Presidency recalls that these are “important, but also sensitive issues”. In fact, the EMFA articles on these topics address elements that are generally regulated by the Member States and therefore vary from country to country.
In order to strike a balance between harmonisation and respect for national cultural practices, Sweden suggested, among other things, that it should be made clearer that it is up to the Member States to guarantee the plurality of content and the independence and proper functioning of the public media.
The document states that “agreement seems at reach for most of the provisions”, but points out that some of them are still under discussion. This is the case, for example, with the exceptions to the protection of journalistic sources - a provision dear to MEPs (see EUROPE 13170/27).
Concentrations and audience measurements
Less discussed than the previous ones, Stockholm notes diverging positions on market concentrations and the allocation of advertising revenues, but a “clear” direction to take.
Indeed, whether on the Committee’s opinions on national media policies or on media market concentrations, the Presidency proposes to limit the scope of the regulation to cases which affect the internal market. As for State aid and audience measurements, it proposes to allow Member States to maintain stricter or more detailed rules at national level.
Finally, the Presidency proposes to strengthen the guarantees offered to media content on very large platforms, while tightening the conditions to benefit from them. Member States also agreed on the importance of strengthening the dialogue between the Board and these platforms.
To see the progress report: https://aeur.eu/f/6o1
Other topics to be covered
While the EMFA is attracting increased political attention, the ambassadors also addressed the other issues at the table of the May EYCS Council.
On the cultural side, they endorsed conclusions on artists in exile (see EUROPE 13163/6).
The same applies to education and youth: the ambassadors gave the green light to a resolution on the European Youth Portal up to and beyond 2025 (see EUROPE 13166/30) and conclusions on the automatic mutual recognition of skills (see EUROPE 13157/22) as well as resolutions on youth dialogues (see EUROPE 13155/19) and on the revised Work Plan for the EU Youth Strategy 2022-2024 and conclusions on a sustainable Europe for young people (see EUROPE 13130/20).
Finally, on sport, the Ambassadors approved the revision of the rules on the representation of Member States in the Foundation Board of the World Anti-Doping Agency (see EUROPE13171A30) and prepared a debate on the respect of fundamental rights at sporting events.
For more information: https://aeur.eu/f/6o2 (Original version in French by Hélène Seynaeve)