Brussels, 10/01/2000 (Agence Europe) - Professional organisations have warmly welcomed the intention expressed by the European Commission to amend the 1980 directive on the financial transparency of public undertakings, in so far as public broadcasting authorities should be subject to compulsory separate accounting of their various services, especially for public and commercial accounts, and they should also provide greater financial transparency of their operations.
According to the Association of Commercial Television (ACT), this modification would "mark an important first step towards clarifying the way in which these public bodies are funded and managed". The British Internet Publishers' Alliance (BIPA) welcomes the initiative, and considers that its "recent experiences with the BBC's activities on the Internet have exposed the extent of the lack of transparency of the BBC's operations and the damage caused to the private sector by un-checked cross-subsidy and cross-promotion". The Association of European Radios (AER) also reacted positively.
The European Commission published in the Official Journal n.C/377 of 29 December 1999 the proposal for an amended directive, as it plans to approve it. It invited third parties interested to submit any observations they may have before end February. The directive currently in force had been adopted by the Commission in 1980 (n.80/723/EEC). It is up to the Commission itself to amend it.