Brussels, 14/02/2007 (Agence Europe) - At the end of the informal EU media and culture ministers' meeting in Berlin on 12-13 February, Viviane Reding declared, “The European Parliament, Council and Commission are clearly on the path to convergence concerning all the central issues of the new 'Audiovisual Content without Frontiers' Directive”. Adding to the declaration made by the European commissioner for media and the information society, the federal government commissioner for culture and the media, Bernd Neumann, who chaired the meeting, stated that together with Ms Reding, “We achieved decisive progress with the discussion in the Council today, so that there is a good chance we will be able to finalise the new 'Audiovisual Content without Frontiers' Directive in May under the German presidency”.
A compromise was presented by the Finnish presidency last November and against all odds, managed to get the support of most member states, including those like France and the United Kingdom, who during the Council meeting had displayed diametrically opposing views (EUROPE 93606). A few weeks later in December, the European Parliament (EP) adopted the report by Ruth Hieronymi (EPP-ED, Germany), a text that was relatively close to the general orientation obtained by the EU25, except for a number of points which are as follows: product placement, application of the country of origin principle, and EP proposals on the need for legislation on education in the media. The work of the EU27 therefore concentrated on these points during the informal meeting in Berlin.
On the question of product placement, an operation that consists of the free provision of products such as cars, watches etc, in a film or series to promote indirect advertising, the EU25 agreed on 13 November to a ban, under certain conditions, for films, television series, sports programmes and entertainment. Parliament wants to allow product placement in films, TV movies and sports programmes but ban them in other programmes. It is also calling for a neutral logo to be displayed every 20 minutes but ministers did agree on product placement being clearly identifiable at the beginning and end of all programmes. In Berlin, minsters confirmed the option on banning product placement. In certain cases where regulation is clear, exceptions could be allowed. They confirmed that product placement should clearly be identifiable at least at the beginning and end of programmes. Ministers considered that the EP idea of displaying a neutral logo every 20 minutes would be “counterproductive”, as it would increase the impact of advertising.
Ministers also resumed their discussion on the country of origin principle whereby a member state, usually the state where the radio broadcaster is established, can control a media service if it has competency in this area. The current directive and draft amendment authorise member states to impose stricter regulation on these services, which poses a problem when cross-border differences arise. In November, a certain number of member states claimed that this approach did not guarantee sufficient protection of their general interests. According to a press release published at the end of the informal Berlin meeting, the country of origin principle will remain the basis of the directive: “Possible problems with cross-border services are to be solved between the affected member states by means of a new consultative procedure agreed on by the Council”.
The EP would like to make the promotion of “education in the media” binding on member states but the Council does not exactly share this view. On Monday, minsters reaffirmed that education in the media constituted an important subject and stressed that in this respect, not only knowledge and technical materials were important but also the responsible use of media by children and young people, a domain where parents, teachers and other learning facilitators had a role to play. Ministers, however, pointed out that the EU recommendation on the protection of minors and human dignity had just entered into force at the beginning of the year, a recommendation in which education in the media plays an important role and in which supplementary regulation is not therefore necessary. On the other hand, ministers agreed to highlight the importance of measures to improve audiovisual media access for people with visual and hearing disabilities, another goal of the EP. They decided to reach a decision during the next meeting of the Council on whether these measures should be at a European level or in the context of subsidiarity. (ol)