Van Miert seeks to confirm power to scrutinise public broadcasting aid

Date: 18/09/1997

By Chris Johnstone

COMPETITION Commissioner Karel van Miert is seeking clarification that his powers to tackle unfair subsidies to public broadcasters have not been damaged by the Amsterdam summit before decisions on controversial and politically delicate cases are taken.

The treaty protocol endorsed by EU governments in June calls for the special public service obligations of state broadcasters to be taken into account if their funding is subject to competition scrutiny.

Van Miert wants to raise the issue at a full European Commission meeting in a bid to win his colleagues' agreement that the protocol does not dilute his powers. This would put him in a stronger position to pilot a backlog of broadcasting subsidy cases through the Commission.

But there are concerns as to whether Commission President Jacques Santer will want to open up debate on the topic before the new EU treaty is signed on 2 October.

Two complaints about aid to public broadcasters are ripe for decision, with the French case promising to spark a political row with the Socialist government.

Competition officials have found strong evidence to support private French broadcaster TF1's complaint that public broadcaster France Television, responsible for the France 2 and France 3 channels, has been given too much money to compensate for its public service commitments. TF1 complained that France Television's mixture of advertising revenue and government funds meant it could sell adverts cheaply while paying premium prices for programmes.

“There are grounds for finding in the French case that the subsidy is going well beyond what the public service commitment would justify,” said a source.

The Spanish case, resulting from a complaint by Gestevision Telecinco against public broadcaster RTVE and Spanish regional television companies, is less clear cut, although there are indications that the public broadcasters were given too much cash in the past. A complaint against Italian public broadcaster RAI is less advanced.

Private broadcasters in Europe are pressing the Commission for fast decisions. They want clarity on what aid state broadcasters can get for their core services before the question is clouded even more by their diversification into new areas.