Strasbourg, 17/10/2000 (Agence Europe) - In its first plenary session the European Parliament adopted the report by Roberta Angelli, member of the Allenanza Nazionale, on the European Commission Communication over parental control of television programmes, invited the Commission to integrate the data gathered on parental control in the EU's statistical programme on the audio-visual sector, "given that the gathering of data must not limit itself to traditional television and must cover other multimedia platforms". Furthermore, the Parliament asserts that it is "urgent" that all the operators in the audio-visual sector introduce a code of self-regulation in terms of protection minors.
In her report Mrs Angelli notes that, in the face of the "avalanche" of television programmes "harmful to the development of children", filtering provisions exist, but they are badly adapted to the European context, the main problem is that the Union is "confronted to a kind of legal puzzle in terms of the protection of minors in the media". Mrs Angelli feels that these proposals are dictated by common sense and take into account the existence of "different legal and ethical concepts in the Member States".
During the debate, there was much talk over subsidiarity in particular from the German MEPs, such as the Social Democrat Karin Junker, in her opinion it concerns issues stemming from the Member States' legislation, "which does not exclude a consensual agreement on the basic values, during a dialogue with all the partners at a European level". The European Parliament "does not raise at any time a possible harmonisation in this field", explained the Belgian Liberal Frederique Ries (television journalist before being elected to the EP), who notes that it concerns at best a "timid convergence", namely the definition, for the protection of minors in the media, of "common criteria and a required minimum". "Minimum criteria, it far less than the Union can do to protect its children", exclaimed Mrs Ries.