Brussels, 16/10/2003 (Agence Europe) - Following an in-depth investigation the European Commission decided that certain ad-hoc measures adopted during the 1990s to support the Italian and Portuguese broadcasters are in line with State aid requirements. The Commission ordered Member States in its communication of 17 October 2001 to explain how they intended to apply rules on state aid and funding of public broadcasters. Although countries are free to determine the extent of public services and how its organisation is funded, subsidies have to be limited to this mission of "proportionality" and can never by indirectly subsidised by commercial activities.
Italy: Between 1992-1995, the Italian State granted state aid to the radio broadcaster RAI some of which formed part of the so called "decreto salva RAI". Believing that these measures constituted state aid, Mediaset and its RTI subsidiary complained in 1996. Following its investigation, the Commission ruled that this aid did not exceed the limits imposed on public broadcasting services. Neither did the Commission observe any distortion in competition on the commercial markets (advertising for example). It did, however, request that Italy introduce modifications to its financing scheme, which predated the Treaty of Rome and which no longer complies to the rules established in its communication.
Portugal: the Public broadcasters, RTP between 1992-98 benefited from a system of annual compensation and nine ad hoc measures of financing which the SIC company complained to the Commission on many occasions (1993, 1996, 1998). The Commission ruled that the nine measures were different ways of financing the RTP as a public service, as well as the annual compensation system. Neither did the aid exceed the net costs of the public services and no distortion of competition was observed on the markets. The Commission decided that the annual system of payments no longer complied with the rules in its communication and is therefore requesting amendments to it.
In Spain, the private broadcasters Telecinco and Antena 3 submitted complaints between 1992-95 on the subject f state aid to the public broadcaster RTVE. The Commission did not open any formal proceedings in this regard but asked Spain to reform its financing mechanism which was implemented before Spain joined the European Communities and has not been substantially changed since then and does not comply with rules in force