Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament pursuant to the second subparagraph of Article 251 (2) of the EC Treaty concerning the common position of the Council on the adoption of a Recommendation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the protection of minors and human dignity and on the right of reply in relation to the competitiveness of the European audiovisual and on-line information services industry
Date: 2006-09-21
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: audiovisual industry, child protection, competitiveness, fundamental rights, information industry

COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES 

Brussels, 21.9.2006 
COM(2006) 546 final 

2004/0117 (COD) 

COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION 
TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT 

pursuant to the second subparagraph of Article 251 (2) of the EC Treaty 

concerning the 

common position of the Council on the adoption of a Recommendation of the European 
Parliament and of the Council on the protection of minors and human dignity and on 
the right of reply in relation to the competitiveness of the European audiovisual and on-
line information services industry 

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2004/0117 (COD) 

COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION 
TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT 

pursuant to the second subparagraph of Article 251 (2) of the EC Treaty 

concerning the 

common position of the Council on the adoption of a Recommendation of the European 
Parliament and of the Council on the protection of minors and human dignity and on 
the right of reply in relation to the competitiveness of the European audiovisual and on-
line information services industry 

1. 

BACKGROUND 

Date of transmission of the proposal to the EP and the Council 
(document COM(2004) 341 final – 2004/0117 (COD): 

30.4.2004. 

Date  of  the  opinion  of  the  European  Economic  and  Social 
Committee: 

9.2.2005. 

Date of the opinion of the European Parliament, first reading: 

7.9.2005. 

Date of transmission of the amended proposal: 

Date of adoption of the common position: 

23.1.2006. 

18.9.2006. 

2. 

OBJECTIVE OF THE COMMISSION PROPOSAL 

The proposal is for a Recommendation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the 
protection  of  minors  and  human  dignity  and  the  right  of  reply  in  relation  to  the 
competitiveness of the European audiovisual and information services industry. The proposal 
is a follow-up to the Second Evaluation Report from the Commission to the Council and the 
European  Parliament  on  the  application  of  Council  Recommendation  98/560/EC  of  24 
September 1998 on the development of the competitiveness of the European audiovisual and 
information  services  industry  by  promoting  national  frameworks  aimed  at  achieving  a 
comparable and effective level of protection of minors and human dignity. 

3. 

COMMENTS ON THE COMMON POSITION 

The  Council  made  some  substantive  changes  relative  to  the  Commission's  proposal  (as 
amended by the Commission's Amended proposal of 20 January 2006) that are for the most 
part acceptable because they will help ensure that the Recommendation's aims are ultimately 
achieved. 

Throughout  the  text,  compared  with  the  Commission's  proposal,  some  wording  has  been 

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changed  either 
Recommendation. 

to  enhance  clarity  or 

to  ensure  coherence  within 

the  proposed 

Recitals 

In recital 17, which deals with the portrayal of the sexes in the media and in advertising, the 
last  part  of  the  sentence:  "and,  if  necessary,  take  appropriate  measures"  was  removed.  The 
Commission  has  no  objections  to  deletions  of  this  part.  No  other  substantive  changes  were 
made in the recitals. 

Operative part 

As to the substance of the operative part, the following changes have been made: 

Under  I,  Point  2(a),  the  part  "and,  for  instance,  by  continuous  training  within  school 
education" was added. The Commission has no objection to this example being added. 

Under  I,  Point  2(c),  the  provision  "action  to  inform  citizens  more  about  the  possibilities 
offered by the Internet" was added. The Commission welcomes this provision being added. 

Under  II,  Point  1,  the  phrases  "for  instance  by  means  of  filtering  systems"  and  "or  warning 
messages" were added. The Commission has no objection to these examples being added. 

Under II, Point 2 has been reworded to read: "examine the possibility of creating filters which 
would  prevent  information  offending  against  human  dignity  from  passing  through  the 
Internet".  Even  though  this  provision  no  longer  makes  specific  reference  to  "material 
containing child pornography", the Commission deems that such material would be covered 
by  "information  offending  against  human  dignity".  Therefore,  the  Commission  has  no 
objections to this rewording. 

Under II, Point 3, the part "using systems to filter information exchanged among users" was 
removed. Since, the essential part of the provision, "develop measures to increase the use of 
content  labelling  systems…  ",  is  still  there,  the  Commission  has  no  objections  to  this 
rewording. 

Under II, Point 4 was reworded to read: "consider effective means of avoiding and combating 
discrimination based on sex, racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age or sexual 
orientation in audiovisual and on-line information services and of promoting a diversified and 
realistic picture of the skills and potential of men and women in society." This rewording does 
not  change  the  substance  of  this  provision.  Therefore,  the  Commission  has  no  objections  to 
this rewording. 

In the section that starts with "TAKE NOTE THAT THE COMMISSION", under point 1, the 
part  "benefits  and"  has  been  added.  The  Commission  has  no  objection  to  this  clarification 
with  regard  to  the  intended  promotion  of  information  actions  in  connection  with  the  2005-
2008 multi-annual Community programme on promoting safer use of the Internet and new on-
line technologies. 

In the same section, under point 6, the following part has been added: "intends to submit to 
the European Parliament and the Council, on the basis of information supplied by the Member 
States,  a  report  on  the  implementation  and  effectiveness  of  the  measures  specified  in  this 
Recommendation,  and  to  review  this  Recommendation  if  and  when  the  need  arises."  This 

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addition is acceptable to the Commission and it would also address the issues in the proposed 
provisions  (EP's  amendments  35  and  36)  recommending  that  the  Member  States  submit  a 
report to the Commission on measures taken to apply this Recommendation and that on the 
basis  of  the  reports  submitted  by  the  Member  States,  the  Commission  would  submit  to  the 
European Parliament a report on the measures laid down in this Recommendation. Therefore, 
the Commission considers that in view of this new provision these latter provisions would not 
be indispensable. 

Annexes 

There  are  only  minor  substantive  changes  in  Annex  I:  "minimum  principles"  were  changed 
back into "indicative guidelines"; and the last sentence, "Member States shall ensure that the 
effective  exercise  of  the  right  of  reply  (or  equivalent  remedies)  and  the  right  of  freedom  of 
expression  is  not  unjustifiable  constrained",  was  left  out  of  the  Council's  common  position. 
The Commission can accept going back to "indicative guidelines" and agrees with the Council 
that the sentence "Member States shall ensure that the effective exercise of the right of reply 
(or  equivalent  remedies)  and  the  right  of  freedom  of  expression  is  not  unjustifiably 
constrained" is superfluous. 

Even though two of the "Examples of possible actions concerning media literacy" in Annex II 
were deleted and the rest of the examples were reworded by the Council, the substance of the 
principles  underpinning  these  examples  remains  the  same.  Therefore,  the  Commission  can 
accept these changes. 

All  the  "Examples  of  possible  actions  by  the  industries  and  the  parties  concerned  for  the 
benefit of minors" in Annex III were reworded by the Council. Since the substance of these 
examples remains the same, the Commission can accept these changes. 

4. 

CONCLUSION 

The  Council  accepted  in  full,  in  part  or  in  principle,  as  did  the  Commission  in  its  amended 
proposal, amendments 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 
26, 28, 29, 30, 31, 33, 35, 36, 37 and 38. Furthermore, the Council has followed the line taken 
by the Commission in its amended proposal and did not include amendments 3, 5, 13, 27, 32 
and 34 in its common position. 

The  Commission  considers  that  the  common  position,  adopted  on  18  September  2006  by  a 
qualified  majority,  respects  to  a  large  extent  the  objectives,  and  the  approach  of  its  own 
proposal, and that the Council has taken due account of the European Parliament's concerns 
and  priorities  and  was  able  to  accept  most  of  Parliament's  amendments.  The  Commission 
therefore grants its support and looks forward to an agreement between the Parliament and the 
Council in the near future with a view to the early adoption of the Recommendation.  

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