New drama over film quota directive

Date: 05/10/1995

By Fiona McHugh

EUROPEAN Commission plans to tighten a controversial broadcasting quota regime aimed at restricting the number of Hollywood blockbusters on European television screens have run into a new obstacle.

Proposals for the revision of the Television Without Frontiers Directive have already split the Commission and the Council of Ministers, with little sign of a breakthrough just two weeks before EU culture ministers meet to try to settle their differences.

Their task has now been complicated by unexpected opposition from key members of the European Parliament to the Commission's quota proposals.

In a move which has confounded colleagues and industry experts alike, Karsten Hoppenstedt and Gerardo Galeote, the German and Spanish rapporteurs dealing with the proposed new directive, are recommending the reintroduction of a measure of flexibility into the EU's broadcasting quota regime.

At stake are revisions to the 1989 directive, approved by the Commission after a long and bitter debate earlier this year, which would make quotas mandatory by removing a legal loophole contained in the original version.

The words “where practicable”, which allowed EU television stations to avoid broadcasting a minimum of 50&percent; European-made programmes, were removed by the college of Commissioners.

Hoppenstedt and Galeote's recommendation, which would mean virtually reverting to the original wording, is likely to infuriate Commissioners who, according to insiders, “shed blood” to have the text changed. Other MEPs who favour the Commission's protectionist stance say they will fight for the Hoppenstedt/Galeote report to be amended when it comes before the Parliament for approval in December.

France, which has led the campaign for tighter curbs, is bound to be disappointed with the report as it was counting on the Parliament for support. It fought hard during its presidency in the first half of 1995 to have the largely voluntary broadcasting guidelines made binding, arguing that the integrity of European culture was at stake.

Many in the European audiovisual industry say this support is essential if the EU is to counter competition from cheaper US products, which have already recouped their costs in their huge domestic market. Hollywood, however, takes a different line. It claims France is simply mounting unfair trade barriers in the name of “la culture”.

Although some Mediterranean countries broadly support the quota system, northern members, led by Germany and Britain, are adamantly opposed to what they call heavy-handed regulatory intervention.

Spain is trying to reconcile differences ahead of an informal meeting of EU culture ministers on 19 and 20 October, but has made little progress so far.

“The Spanish presidency came up with a compromise position dismissed as totally unacceptable for the member states who oppose quotas. It is hard to imagine a compromise which would satisfy every one,” said one German diplomat.

Negotiations within the Council of Ministers' audio-visual working group continue.