Legislative Train Schedule
European Parliament
Please fill in this field to search

Proposal for a Regulation establishing a common framework for media services in the internal market (European Media Freedom Act) and amending Directive 2010/13/EU

In “A New Push for European Democracy”

PDF version

Media freedom and pluralism are part of the rights and principles enshrined in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and in the European Convention on Human Rights. They are essential to democracy; one of the European Union founding values according to Article 2 of the Treaty on the European Union. However, the 2020-2022 Rule of Law Reports of the European Commission, and the Media Pluralism Monitor, developed by the Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom, have raised concerns about the politicisation of the media, deteriorating situation regarding the protection of the right to information and the journalistic profession, lack of transparency of media ownership and lack of independence of media regulators in several EU Member States. The pandemic also had an important impact with unprecedented loss of revenue for media houses. In the news media sector, traditional media have struggled to adapt to an online market in which the majority of advertising revenues go to global online platforms.

The Commission’s European Democracy Action Plan and the Action Plan for the Media aim to support the recovery and transformation of the media and audiovisual sector after the pandemic, to protect and empower journalists, and to ensure media freedom and pluralism throughout the Union. However, both Vice-President of the Commission Věra Jourová and Commissioner Thierry Breton have acknowledged in front of the European Parliament that complementary tools are needed at EU level to counter the growing politicisation of the media in some Member States. Therefore, the European Commission committed to prepare a European Media Freedom Act (EMFA). In January 2022, the Commission published public consultation on the upcoming Act, following a call for evidence from December 2021.

The proposal for a regulation was presented on 16 September 2022, together with a recommendation. Taking the Audiovisual Media Services Directive as a starting point, the proposed European Media Freedom Act seeks to set rules to protect media pluralism and independence in the EU, including safeguards against political interference in editorial decisions.

The regulation would require Member States to respect the effective editorial freedom of media service providers and improve the protection of journalistic sources. Media service providers would have to ensure the transparency of their ownership by publicly disclosing such information. Public authorities would have to publish information on their advertising expenditure on media, to ensure that the allocation of state advertising is transparent and non-discriminatory. According to the proposal, the funding for public service media should be adequate and stable, preferably decided on a multi-year basis, in order to ensure editorial independence. The Act would also enhance the transparency and objectivity of audience measurement systems, which have an impact on media advertising revenues in particular online. Building on the Digital Services Act, the Media Freedom Act would protect media content online.

Member States would be required to to assess the impact of media market concentrations on media pluralism. EMFA also includes safeguards against the use of spyware against media and journalists. The Act would create a new European Board for Media Services, comprised of national media authorities and tasked with ensuring consistent application of EU media law framework by assisting the Commission in preparing guidelines on media regulation.

Parliament's Committee on Culture and Education is the committee responsible, with the Committees on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) and Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) as associated committees. LIBE is has exclusive competence on article 4(2) and article 20(3). IMCO has shared competence over the entire proposal.

In the Council, the proposal is discussed within the Audiovisual and Media Working Party. A progress report was presented in November 2022 at the Education, Youth, Culture and Sport Council. Several Member States raised the issue of subsidiarity, while others welcomed better cooperation in this area. The Council Legal Service was requested to examine the proposed legal basis (Article 114 TFEU).

The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) adopted its opinion in December 2022, welcoming EU initiatives aiming to address the worrying developments in the area of media freedom over the last years. EESC opinion calls for measures to ensure the independence of national regulatory bodies, especially in the context of the future European board for media services. It also considers that EU anti-concentration law should be used where national regulators fail to address media market concentration.

The Council also launched an optional consultation of the Committee of the Regions, which adopted its opinion in March 2023. CoR fully shares the objectives of the proposal, but stresses that introducing a new regulation at EU level can cause negative effects of overregulation on the well-established media systems across the Member States in which media freedom and pluralism are ensured. Therefore, a legal act of a directive, instead of the regulation, would better serve the subsidiarity, proportionality and multilevel governance principles. 

In the European Parliament, the draft legislative report was presented in the CULT committee meeting on 26 April, with deadline for amendments set for 5 May 2023. The rapporteur proposed 117 amendments, and by the deadline, other Members of the committee had tabled over 1200 amendments. A vote in CULT is planned for September 2023.

A second progress report was presented in the Council meeting of 16 May. Ministers discussed key issues that still need to be resolved before an overall agreement can be reached within the Council.

References:

Further Reading:

Related legislative train carriages:

Author: Tarja Laaninen, Members' Research Service, legislative-train@europarl.europa.eu

As of 20/05/2023.