European Parliament: Decision on the Council's common position concerning the amendment of the `Television without Frontiers' Directive

IRIS 1996-10:1/12

Ad van Loon

European Audiovisual Observatory

On 12 November 1996, on the basis of a Recommendation by the Committee on Culture, Youth, Education and the Media, Parliament discussed the common position established by the Council of the European Union ( see IRIS 1996-9: 8  and IRIS 1996-6: 7) with a view to the adoption of a Directive amending the present `Television without Frontiers' Directive.

The Culture Committee had proposed some radical amendments to the Council's common position. Notably it proposed that the obligation for EU Member States to ensure `where practicable', that broadcasters reserve for European works a majority proportion of their transmission time (the quota rules) would be strengthened, that the scope of the Directive would be enlarged so as to include certain new services that are comparable to television broadcasting (esp. video-on-demand), and that advertising would be regulated more strictly. However, Parliament could only amend the Council's common position by absolute majority which was not reached. Proposals that were accepted relate in particular to the possibility of financial sanctions for Member States in case of non-compliance with certain provisions of the Directive and the protection of minors: all television sets would need to be equipped with a so-called V-Chip ( see IRIS 1996-3:10, IRIS 1996-7: 7 and IRIS 1996-8: 10).

Following the amendments to the Council's common position which were adopted by the European Parliament there will be a conciliation procedure, which is an attempt to bring Parliament and the Council on one line, but this will not relate to issues on which Parliament could not reach an absolute majority.


References

  • Decision on the common position adopted by the Council with a view to the adoption of a European Parliament and Council Directive amending Council Directive 89/552/EEC on the coordination of certain provisions laid down by law, regulation or administrative action in Member States concerning the pursuit of television broadcasting activities, MINUTES of the Sitting of Tuesday, 12 November 1996, Provisional Edition, PE 253.831: 42-58.
  • http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:51996AP0346:EN:HTML

  • Recommendation for Second Reading on the common position established by the Council with a view to the adoption of a European Parliament and Council Directive amending Council Directive 89/552/EEC on the coordination of certain provisions laid down by law, regulation or administrative action in Member States concerning the pursuit of television broadcasting activities, Committee on Culture, Youth, Education and the Media, Rapporteurs: Mr Gerardo Galeote Quecedo and Mr Karsten Friedrich Hoppenstedt, A4-0436/96, PE 219.404/fin.

This article has been published in IRIS Legal Observations of the European Audiovisual Observatory.