28/02/2008 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 27 February, the European Commission closed its investigation into the financing regime for VRT, the public service broadcaster in the Flemish community of Belgium in the light of formal commitments by the Belgian authorities to amend the current regime. The modifications will clarify inter alia the definition and entrustment of the public service remit, and introduce mechanisms to ensure proportionality of public funding. The Commission has concluded that these commitments would be suitable to ensure Belgium's compliance with EU state aid rules. Belgium now has 12 months to implement the commitments. In 2004, the Commission received complaints against various aspects of the financing regime for VRT. Private competitors argued that there was no proportionate relationship between the public funding VRT receives for the fulfilment of its public service tasks and the net costs of carrying out these tasks. The complainants also claimed that the definition of the public service remit was not sufficiently precise and that there were no effective control mechanisms. (O.L.)