WRITTEN QUESTION P-3036/00

by Lisbeth Grönfeldt Bergman (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(20 September 2000)

Subject: Further targeted government aid to public service TV in Sweden

The Swedish Minister for Cultural Affairs recently promised an additional SEK 500 million (approximately 60 million) per year to the government-owned public service companies Sveriges Television (SVT) and Sveriges Radio (SR).

The additional government aid will be generated by exempting SVT from paying fees for broadcasting over the analogue network.

There is a competing TV company, the privately owned TV4, which also broadcasts over the analogue network. To be allowed to do so, TV4 has committed itself to several public service obligations such as broadcasting news and restricting its commercial breaks.

According to the Minster for Cultural Affairs, TV4 will continue to pay broadcasting fees which, in terms of competition, constitutes further discrimination against the company.

SVT already receives considerable support in the form of licence fees, or tax on TV receivers, direct aid and corporate sponsorship of major events.

I am aware that public service TV receives special protection under the Treaty of Amsterdam but that cannot mean that governments may use targeted government aid to discriminate unrestrictedly against private alternatives.

How does the Commission intend to act, therefore, to prevent further targeted government aid to SVT and SR, which is impeding competition in Sweden?

Answer given by Mr Monti on behalf of the Commission

(18 October 2000)

The Commission is grateful to the Honourable Member for the information she has brought to its attention on the system of funding of public service broadcasters in Sweden. The Commission has so far received no complaint concerning possible state aid to SVT and SR that would distort competition.

There is no legal basis for the exclusion of broadcasting from the application of state aid rules. In general terms a distinction can be drawn between specific projects of aid which can normally be assessed in the light of the EC Treaty compatibility clauses referring to restructuring aid and aid to culture and the general funding schemes for public broadcasters. The latter will have normally to be assessed in the light of Article 86(2) (ex Article 90) of the EC Treaty referring to services of general economic interest, the Protocol to the EC Treaty on the system of public services in broadcasting and the recently updated communication on services of general interest in Europe(1).

The Commission recognises that public services broadcasting plays several important roles in our modern societies: it promotes cultural diversity in each country, it provides educational as well as quality entertainment programmes, it objectively informs public opinion, and it guarantees pluralism.

As has been recalled by the Protocol(2), it is a prerogative of each Member State to confer, define and organise the public service remit and the system of funding in that regard. The Commission has the duty to make sure that state aid to public broadcasters does not affect trading conditions and competition in the Community to an extent which would be contrary to the common interest.

In order to do so, the Commission must verify that four conditions are fulfilled: a public service mandate is precisely defined, it is formally attributed to the public undertaking, the state aid is limited to the net extra costs of the public service mandate and competition is preserved.

The Commission is considering how to define a coherent framework for assessing state aid in public service broadcasting, so to ensure legal certainty to all operators.

(1) COM(2000) 580 final.

(2) The Protocol, after considering that the system of public broadcasting in the Member States is directly related to the democratic, social and cultural needs of each society and to the need to preserve media pluralism, states that: The provisions of the Treaty shall be without prejudice to the competence of Member States to provide for the funding of public service broadcasting in so far as such funding is granted to broadcasting organisations for the fulfilment of the public service remit as conferred, defined and organised by each Member State, and that such funding does not affect trading conditions and competition in the Community to an extent which would be contrary to the common interest, while the realisation of the remit of that public service shall be taken into account.