WRITTEN QUESTION No. 3810/97 by Luciana CASTELLINA to the Commission. Obligations of the Baltic States regarding the acquis communautaire in the audiovisual sector
Date: 1997-11-19
Institutions: CASTELLINA, European Parliament
Subjects: Baltic States, World Trade Organisation, accession to the European Union, association agreement (EU), audiovisual industry, liberalisation of the market, services contract, tertiary sector

8. 6. 98

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 174/133

For  this  reason  it  is  not  possible  to  give  a  definite  answer  to  this  question.  However,  the  Community  has
supported  a  number  of  research  projects  investigating  the  local  or  regional  impacts  of  sea  level  rise  in
north-western Mediterranean deltas and the eastern Po plane. The specific consequences of sea level rise for the
Canary islands have not been studied, since for these regions no proposals were submitted to the environment
and climate programme.

Socio-economic issues of sea level rise have been studied in some of the projects. The final reports of these
projects are available on request.

Research is being carried out to study the effects of sea level rise on coastlines and beaches in Europe, but not in
particular for the Canary islands for reasons stated above.

(1)  OJ L 361, 31.12.1994.

(98/C 174/200)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-3810/97

by Luciana Castellina (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

(19 November 1997)

Subject: Obligations of the Baltic States regarding the acquis communautaire in the audiovisual sector

The Baltic States are currently negotiating their entry into the WTO (World Trade Organization) and must in that
connection specify any obligations they may have with regard to the audiovisual sector.

In view of the fact that the Baltic States are also bound by association agreements with the European Union and
also aspire to join the EU, can the Commission tell us anything about these states(cid:146) policy in this sensitive sector?
Does  not  the  Commission  think  that  they  should  align  themselves,  within  the  WTO,  with  the  Community
position on audiovisual matters, which is defined by a lack of sectorial commitments and a derogation from the
most › favoured › nation clause?

Answer given by Sir Leon Brittan on behalf of the Commission

(16 December 1997)

The negotiations for the accession of Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania to the World trade organisation (WTO) are
continuing. The requests made by the Community to these countries in the context of the General agreement for
trade in services (GATS) have focused on the need to balance a high degree of liberalisation with compatibility
between the specific commitments that these countries will make and those made by the Community for each
services sector as a result of the Uruguay Round and the following WTO negotiations. This policy line responds
to the existence of association agreements between the Community and each of those three countries and also to
their possible accession in the future to the Community.

This  line  of  ensuring  compatibility  has  also  been  followed  by  the  Community  on  audio-visual  services.
Accordingly, the three Baltic countries have sought to treat audio-visual services in their accession offers in the
same way as the Community does in its own WTO schedule of commitments: i.e. no specific market access and
national treatment commitments on any audio-visual services and, some exemptions to the GATS most favoured
nation  (MFN)  in  order  to  protect  European  works  and  some  European  programmes  such  as  MEDIA.  So  far,
Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia have all indicated that they will follow this approach in their offers for accession
which are currently being negotiated within the WTO.

Some trading partners have requested the Baltic countries to undertake commitments on audio-visual services
and depart from the MFN exemption approach. However the Commission understands that Latvia, Estonia and
Lithuania are resisting these requests.