AUDIOVISUAL POLICY : TVWF DIRECTIVE STRIKES DELICATE BALANCE.

• Position: Television Without Frontiers

Aadelicate balance was struck on 13 December at the European Parliament (first reading, co-decision procedure) between the modernisation of audiovisual media and the relaxation of advertising rules. For Parliament's rapporteur on the proposal for a review of the Television Without Frontiers (TVWF) Directive, Ruth Hieronymi (EPP-ED, Germany), the principal aim is to update the text's scope in order to guarantee the economic viability of these services on the internal market. She nevertheless stipulated that this exercise might be repeated in three years' time to adapt the legislation to the further evolution of new media. The rapporteur was able to claim real success on a large number of points, enabling her to push through a position very close to that taken by EU ministers.

ADVERTISING COMPROMISE

MEPs above all moved towards the line taken by EU ministers on advertising, backing the rapporteur's amendment proposing 30-minute commercial breaks (commercials and/or teleshopping) - instead of the 45 minutes proposed by Parliament's Committee on Culture and Education - in television dramas, feature films, children's programmes and news broadcasts (see Europolitics 3210). French MEPs from across the political spectrum expressed their disappointment in this regard...