“Television without borders” directive provisions on advertising upsets media programme partner, Switzerland

Brussels, 10/04/2008 (Agence Europe) - The Swiss delegation, led by the assistant director of the Federal Office of Culture, Marc Wehrlin, and a delegation of the European Union, led by Gregory Paulger, Director of DG INFOSO, met on Friday 4 April, in Brussels, to discuss regulation of advertising slots in Swiss programmes, following Switzerland's accession to the European MEDIA programme (EUROPE 9523). Swiss participation in the programme effectively depends on the condition of the country applying a provision in the European “Television without Borders” directive from November 2009 onwards. Under the terms of this provision, advertising slots aimed at Switzerland will now be exclusively subject to the national rules of the country that distributes the advertising. In other words, the MEDIA agreements would remove Switzerland's right to apply its own legislation on the advertising content in adverts from European Union member states, a situation that is upsetting the Swiss. Advertising slots from Germany and France are currently distributed in the country. Switzerland explains that although there is no problem with France, which subjects advertising to the same restrictions as Switzerland, the situation is very different with Germany on adverts for all alcoholic drinks. There is no problem, however, with the nature of political and religious advertising, which is banned in all three countries. During a session in the winter of 2007, the Federal Assembly sent the new MEDIA agreement to the Federal Council and requested it to initiate discussions with the EU in an effort to find a solution that takes the specificities of media policy in Switzerland more into account. At the end of Friday's meeting, the different partners said that they were pleased with the “constructive atmosphere” at the discussions. The delegations agreed that discussions will now continue on the modalities for applying the agreement, which have to correspond to requirements in European and MEDIA legislation, taking into account concerns on the two sides. (I.L.)