The Commission has still concerns on the implementation of Audiovisual Media Services Directive in eight Member States
The European Commission has given 10 weeks to reply to the fact-finding letters addressed to eight Member States with regard to the implementation of Audiovisual Media Services Directive in these countries.
10 weeks is the period of time laid down to answer the Commission regarding its concerns on the implementation of Audiovisual Media Services Directive in eight EU Member States (Austria, Cyprus, Estonia, Germany, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania and Luxemburg). The issues raised vary from one Member State to the other. The requests for information do not imply that the Directive has been incorrectly implemented by the Member States concerned but simply that, at this stage, the Commission has some outstanding questions concerning their implementation of the Directive.
In the requests for clarification have been raised the following wide range of issues related to the implementation of the Directive: the country of origin principle and jurisdiction issues concerning audiovisual services; audiovisual commercial communications (including product placement and sponsorship television advertising and teleshopping); basic obligations under the Directive (such as identification requirements, rules on incitement to hatred, on accessibility, balanced coverage obligations, registration of on-demand services); the protection of minors; promoting European works; events of major importance to be broadcast on free to air television and short news extracts; and cooperation between regulators.
In March 2011, the Commission sent a first round of letters to 16 Member States (Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Malta, The Netherlands, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Slovakia and the United Kingdom. Slovenia has not notified to the Commission any measures to implement the AVMS Directive into its national law and Poland has only partially notified some measures. These two Member States are currently subject to infringement procedures. The Commission is still analysing the measures notified by Portugal.