Brussels, 09/03/2007 (Agence Europe) - On Friday, the European Commission unveiled a consolidated version of the draft “Audiovisual without borders” directive. This new test, said Martin Selmayr, the spokesman for Information Society and Media Commissioner Viviane Redding, builds in a great many of the amendments made to the initial text in first reading by the European Parliament and others from the Council in its joint position. He said that the Parliament and Council would accept 95% of the test of the consolidated version. The only snag was the independence of the media monitoring authorities. The Commission proposal seeks to guarantee that national regulatory authorities are independent of governments and all audiovisual services suppliers, and that they work impartially and transparently. The Commission considers that the independence of the media monitoring authorities is necessary for democracy and crucial to endure the plurality of the media. In first reading, the Parliament gave strong backing to this approach, but three member states (Germany, Denmark and Spain) had reservations. This is a problem that remains to be solved but one which does not prevent Ms Redding's optimism. She said she was “confident that we will now achieve political agreement on the new "Audiovisual Without Frontiers" Directive by the end of May”. The text of the proposal can be viewed at http: //ec.europa.eu/comm/avpolicy/docs/reg/modernisation/proposal_2005/avms-unoff-en.pdf (ol)