Brussels, 18/09/2002 (Agence Europe) - The European Convention is to safeguard and strengthen the principles on which acquis communautaire is founded regarding public broadcasting, and allow better gearing between the exercise of public service missions and the application of competition rules. Such is the content of the contribution presented to the Convention by MEP Olivier Duhamel in agreement with the Chair of the Committee on Education, Culture and Media, Michel Rocard (also French Socialist).
The new texts, which were developed from the current review of the treaties, could, says Mr Duhamel, strengthen the legitimacy of the audiovisual public service and of policies aimed at maintaining media pluralism by: (1) including freedom of expression and pluralism of the media among the fundamental values set out in the future Constitution. In order to achieve this, the integration of the Charter of Fundamental Rights into the European Constitution is indispensable; the Charter must be binding, and the preliminary articles of the Treaty, which fix the objectives of the EU, should integrate the notions of cultural diversity and pluralist expression of trends in public opinion; (2) guaranteeing subsidiarity in the audiovisual field, which mainly means that the Amsterdam Protocol should be kept as an integral part of the future Treaty. Mr Duhamel recalls that the Protocol on the public broadcasting system in Member States, annexed to the Treaty, establishes, in conformity with the principle of subsidiarity, the competence of Member States for defining, organising its missions and financing them in so far as this does not modify the competitive situation in a way that runs counter to the general interest, given that the achievement of the mandate of this public service must be borne in mind. (3) devoting an enlarged and strengthened Article 151 to the audiovisual and culture sector: It is fundamental, says Olivier Duhamel, that Art. 151.4 (which makes it compulsory for the Community to take cultural aspects into account in its action under other Treaty provisions) be strengthened in order to affirm that some non-commercial values deserve own guarantees to promote innovation and creation in the cultural fields. This article should also specify that the freedom of expression and pluralism should benefit from guarantees each time mergers are envisaged in the media sector, concludes Olivier Duhamel.