Opinion of the Committee of the Regions on the "Communication from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions: Principles and guidelines for the Community's audiovisual policy in the digital age"

(2000/C 317/08)

THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS,

having regard to the Communication from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions entitled Principles and guidelines for the Community's audiovisual policy in the digital age (COM(1999) 657 final);

having regard to the decision of the Commission of 20 December 1999 to consult the Committee, in accordance with Article 265 (1) of the Treaty establishing the European Community;

having regard to the decision of the Bureau of the Committee of the Regions of 2 June 1999 to instruct Commission 3 for Trans-European Networks, Transport and the Information Society to draw up the opinion;

having regard to the Communication from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions on the Convergence of the telecommunications, media and information technology sectors and the implications for regulation - results of the public consultation on the Green Paper - COM(1999) 108 final - and the Opinion of the Committee of the Regions on the Communication (CdR 191/99 fin)(1);

having regard to the Opinion of the Committee of the Regions on the Communications from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions on Fifth report on the implementation of the telecommunications regulatory package - COM(1999) 537 final and Towards a new framework for electronic communications infrastructure and associated services - the 1999 communications review - COM(1999) 539 final - (CdR 520/99 fin);

having regard to the draft opinion (CdR 86/2000 rev.) adopted by Commission 3 on 4 May 2000 (Rapporteur: Dr Schiffmann, member of the Rhineland-Palatinate regional parliament (D/PSE),

at its 34th plenary session of 14 and 15 June 2000 (meeting of 14 June) adopted the following opinion.

The committee of the regions

1. in line with its previous opinions, welcomes the Commission communication as a suitable basis for the audiovisual policy of the European Union in the coming years and in the transition to the digital age;

2. welcomes the fact that the Commission not only stresses the outstanding importance of the audiovisual sector for growth and employment in Europe, but also highlights its great social and cultural importance and the value of the audiovisual media for education and thus also for common values, public interests and goods, which must at all costs be preserved in the future;

3. sees the preservation of social and cultural values (freedom of expression, pluralism, protection for authors and their works, promotion of linguistic and cultural diversity, protection of minors and human dignity, and consumer protection) and the diversity which has developed in the audiovisual sector as matters of special national and regional importance, which must be protected against the trend towards thinking in exclusively economic terms at Community level;

4. strongly emphasises in this connection the central role of the audiovisual media in transmitting social and cultural values, particularly to young people, and is glad that the Commission shares this assessment;

5. reiterates its view that a regulatory framework for audiovisual content in the digital age does not need to be created from scratch, but rather that existing instruments and principles should be adapted and further developed;

6. wholeheartedly welcomes the fact that the Commission is in favour of the separate regulation of services and content, as advocated by the Committee of the Regions in its Opinion on the Convergence of the telecommunications, media and information technology sectors and the implications for regulation - results of the public consultation on the Green Paper;

7. welcomes and endorses the Commission's view that the regulatory framework for content must guarantee effective protection of the general interests of society;

8. endorses the graduated approach to regulation, as embodied in the step-by-step approach which the Commission considers necessary, in order to take account of the general interests affected by various kinds of service;

9. endorses the principles laid down for communications infrastructure and related services in the 1999 communication report, under which future regulatory measures must be based on clearly defined political objectives and kept to the necessary minimum, whilst improving legal certainty and being technologically neutral;

10. recognises the principles of necessity and proportionality as decisive regulatory instruments for the audiovisual sector, particularly during the transition to the digital age;

11. reiterates in this context the importance of self regulation for policy in the audiovisual sector and advocates a greater role for self regulation, whilst not overestimating its possible risks;

12. sees the period which it is intended should elapse before the Commission presents proposals for changes to the television directive as an opportunity to take account of any as yet unforeseeable changes which may by then have occurred as a result of digital television;

13. welcomes the fact that the Commission also looks at the question of access to audiovisual content and its restraint with regard to regulatory proposals, as well as the fact that it initially intends merely to monitor the whole area carefully;

14. welcomes in principle the recognition of the essential role of public-service broadcasting in the dual broadcasting system which exists in most Member States which underlies the Commission's argument, and the recognition of the responsibility of the Member States, in accordance with the protocol to the Amsterdam Treaty, for defining the remit of public-service broadcasters and deciding how they shall be financed;

15. strongly opposes, therefore, any tendency on the part of the Commission to invoke Community interests in order to interfere with the power of the Member States, and in some cases the regions, as provided by the protocol, to define the remit of public-service broadcasters and decide how they shall be financed;

16. in view of the political and social importance of the audiovisual media in a democratic society, advocates the establishment of "must-carry-rules" in the process of regulating content for the digital dissemination of programmes and services, in order to safeguard pluralism and diversity of opinion;

17. calls on the Commission to propose specific conclusions and measures with a view to averting the danger which it has rightly pinpointed of a division of society into information "haves" and "have-nots";

18. notes with interest the arguments on regulatory authorities, but stresses in this context that it sees their activities as a national and regional task and therefore resolutely opposes any discussion of forms of organisation at Community level;

19. stresses the particular importance of copyright protection in the audiovisual area and calls on the Commission to work even harder for the creation of an effective European framework for the protection of intellectual property;

20. views with concern the fact that American productions by far outnumber European productions in the audiovisual industry, and suggests that an important contribution be made to the preservation of cultural diversity in Europe with the proposed support for European production, and sees such protection of European cultural diversity as a task ideally suited to the regions and local authorities;

21. stresses the importance of support measures to strengthen European audiovisual production, welcomes the Commission's proposal for a new Media Plus programme, which takes special account of the requirements of the digital environment, but considers that the proposed programme needs to be extended to provide special support for audiovisual products and services of relevance to the regions and their cultural and social characteristics;

22. calls on the Commission not to attempt to use the control of subsidies to broaden its powers, as seems to be its intention in relation to subsidies for cinema and television production;

23. calls on the Commission to work to ensure that Europe remains a strong economic and cultural force in the audiovisual sector, and, in so doing, to help strengthen the audiovisual industry and thus boost growth and employment in Europe;

24. advocates a greater role for the regions in audiovisual policy in the digital age.

Brussels, 14 June 2000.

The President

of the Committee of the Regions

Jos Chabert

(1) OJ C 57, 29.2.2000, p. 5.