Regions play a major role in regulating and supporting the media and cultural sectors in the EU. In ensuring media freedom and pluralism and preserving the integrity of the European information space, overlapping of media supervision and overregulation at EU level should be avoided. While there is a need for closer cooperation between media regulatory authorities, due attention must be given to the independence of the proposed European Board for Media Services from political and business influence. These are the main messages of the opinion on the European Media Freedom Act, led by Mark Speich (DE/EPP), which was adopted during the plenary session of the European Committee of the Regions (CoR) on 16 March.
The European Union is a frontrunner in global terms when it comes to safeguarding independent media, which are a key pillar of democracy and play a crucial role in shaping the public opinion and ensuring accountability. In order to safeguard against political interference in editorial decisions, and to address independence and stable funding of public service media as well as the transparency of media ownership, the European Commission has proposed the European Media Freedom Act regulation.
The European Committee of the Regions fully shares the objectives of the proposal, but stresses that introducing a regulation can cause negative effects of overregulation on the well-established media systems across the EU Member States in which media freedom and pluralism are ensured. The Committee emphasised therefore that a legal act of a Directive, instead of the Regulation, would better serve the subsidiarity, proportionality and multilevel governance principles. Even though the independence of the European Union media ecosystems is exposed to various threats, regulating media systems would require a diversified approach that cannot be based on the EU's internal market competence as the sole legal basis. This holds particularly true as media services have an important function in the cultural sector, education and protection of freedom of expression.
Rapporteur Mark Speich (DE/EPP), State Secretary for Federal, European and International Affairs and Media of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, said: "It is extremely important that the CoR takes a position on behalf of European regions and municipalities on this far-reaching draft European Media Freedom Act. Democratic societies are based on media freedom and pluralism. The Commission's draft certainly pursues the right goal, but there is room for improvement in many areas. My opinion therefore contains a whole series of proposals for improvement. In particular, Europe should not replace the responsibility of the member States for the protection of freedom and plurality of the media, but rather support it."
CoR members highlighted that in initiatives to safeguard media pluralism, overlapping of media supervision has to be avoided on European level. It is the duty of Member States to guarantee media pluralism, coupled with ensuring the respect of the principles of independent media supervision free from political influence.
Background:
The European Commission proposed on 16 September 2022 the European Media Freedom Act which aims at protecting media pluralism and independence in the EU single market, where media can operate more easily across borders. The Act will set safeguards to ensure greater independence, transparency and cooperation between media market operators and thereby promote their economic development across borders.