"The protest has been fruitful", stated Ruth Hieronymi, Cornelis Visser and Ivo Belet who organized yesterday a hearing for the EPP-ED-Group on the revision of the Commission's broadcasting communication which deals with the future financing of public broadcasters.

"The representative of the European Commission, Director-General Philip Lowe, has supported our key demand that public broadcasting cannot be evaluated only on the basis of competition law. It is therefore of crucial importance that the Commission has announced its willingness to further revise its broadcasting communication", the three MEPs stressed and also referred to the fact that the governments of 22 EU Member States have fundamentally criticized the Commission's draft communication, as well.

In the hearing Members of Parliament and the Commission have therefore underlined.

• that public radio stations may broadcast both conventional and new services within the framework of their mandate on a "technologically-neutral" basis and via all existing platforms;

• that the mandate of public broadcasting equally covers programmes for information, education and entertainment;

• that "market failure" of the private broadcasters alone shall not be a sufficient criteria to positively define the mandate for new media services provided by public broadcasting;

• the evaluation of the introduction of new media services must be practical and efficient and in line with the principle of subsidiarity based on the concerned member state's decision.

"On this basis, it should be possible within the next months to revise the broadcasting communication in a way that both - public and private broadcasters - can guarantee adequate information and media pluralism in the future", concluded the three EPP-ED parliamentarians.

For further information:
Ruth Hieronymi, MEP, tel.: + 32 - 2 - 2847859
Cornelis Visser, MEP, tel.: +32 - 2 - 2847509
Ivo Belet, MEP, tel.: +32 - 2 - 2847623

Source :Ruth Hieronymi (EVP-ED/CDU), Cornelis Visser, Ivo Belet