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By its Decree of 5 May 2004, the Flemish Parliament has implemented the European Electronic Communications Framework (see IRIS 2002-3: 4). The Decree was adopted more than ten months after the deadline for implementation provided by the framework. In April 2004, the European Commission had announced its decision to refer to the European Court of Justice six Member States, including Belgium, for failing to fully implement the framework (see IRIS 2004-6: 6). The new Decree introduces a new general definition of "electronic communications networks", which is inspired by the Framework Directive and...

Belgium has set up a tax shelter to encourage investment in Belgian audiovisual works by Belgian companies. These fiscal measures were first introduced by the program law of 2 August 2002 and amended by the program law of 22 December 2003 and the law of 17 May 2004. When investing in a Belgian audiovisual production, a Belgian company or a foreign company to which the Belgian income tax regulation is applicable can receive a tax benefit. The investing company can deduct 150% of the investment from its taxable profits. However, the maximum tax-deductible amount must not exceed EUR 750,000 in one...

On 21 April 2004, the European Commission announced its decision to refer to the European Court of Justice the six Member States that had still not fully implemented the new regulatory framework for electronic communications into their national law (i.e. Belgium, Germany, Greece, France, Luxembourg and the Netherlands). The new framework was to be implemented by July 2003, but 8 Member States failed to meet this deadline and in October 2003 the Commission opened infringement proceedings against those States (see IRIS 2003-10: 5 and IRIS 2004-2: 4). Proceedings against two Member States, Spain (see...

On 16 May 2004, Belgium’s French Community and the French Republic signed a two-year renewable agreement aimed at supporting the co-production of cinematographic works. This replaces the 1962 agreement on cinematographic relations. According to the agreement, cinematographic works co-produced in accordance with the terms and conditions set out in it are regarded as domestically produced and thus reap the benefits associated with this classification. The conditions for enjoying these benefits are as follows: works must have been approved by each party’s competent authorities (the Centre du Cinéma...

By its Decree of 4 June 2003, the Flemish Parliament has retransferred the competence on licensing of radio broadcasters to the Flemish Government. The licensing of private radio stations in the Flemish Community was transferred in 1998 to the Vlaams Commissariaat voor de Media (Flemish Media Authority) as a depoliticization of the procedures of radio licensing, which until 1998 were decided upon by the Flemish Government and the Minister responsible (see IRIS 1998-9: 9). Recent practice however and new developments in policy are the bases of the decision to retransfer the decision making role...