Summary

Summary - EU Media Policy 24/25

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Course
EU Media Policy

Institution
Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB)

Summary of EU Media Policy. PowerPoint slides supplemented with notes and example questions for the oral exam! Don’t let the amount of pages scare you. I’ve used a large font size and included many figures, graphs and images.

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Uploaded on January 8, 2025
Number of pages 143
Written in 2024/2025
Type Summary

eu mp
eu media policy
media policy
policy
eu media

Institution
Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB)
Education
Communicatiewetenschappen
Course
EU Media Policy

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HOC 1: Introduction
I. What is EU media policy about?

• It’s about Directives, Regulation, soft law and various stakeholders.
• It’s about the power struggle between EU and national institutions, member states and
interest groups.
• It’s about copyright, competition and antitrust, about state aid and the Audiovisual Media
Services Directive
• It’s about production and distribution, hardware, and software.
• It’s more and more about digital platforms, and players who don’t see themselves as media
players…

II. EU Media Policy

Media companies have to deal with EU Governments also have to deal with EU
• When companies want to gain revenues • When governments want to support a
from television advertising, they have to public broadcaster, they have to make
respect European commercial sure the European Commission agrees on
communication. the regulation and funding of that public
• When companies want to have access to broadcaster.
Microsoft’s software data and are denied • When the EU adopts a new directive
that access, they should know there is EU regarding audiovisual media services, MS
legislation applying to this. will have to implement it in national
• When companies make price agreements legislation.
and are caught, they will be required to • When governments introduce new
pay a considerable fine. regulation, e.g., protecting local content
players, they might find themselves
infringing EU law.

III. How do we approach media policy?

• A historic reflex: From nothing to Television Without Frontiers to the Digital Agenda and the
Digital Single Market
• A holistic reflex: with an eye on context and complexity; with an eye on tensions and trends,
the different players involved and understanding why specific policies find their way to
regulatory frameworks, and others don’t.
• A critical perspective: we critically examine results and impact; did programs and
regulation live up to the expectations?

➔ Not: PR & internal and external communication policy.
➔ Yes: EU policy developed since the 1980s concerning media, telecommunications, and
platforms in view of the creation of a user-friendly information and knowledge society, which will
enhance job creation, competitiveness, innovation and cultural diversity.

With a focus on EU policymaking, but wider attention for wider developments as well (WTO,
UNESCO, Council of Europe)!

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, a. A holistic approach

b. A multistakeholder/MLG approach

A focus on different tensions
A focus on EU media policy is often restricted to case studies.
Is often lacking complexity of the process and context.
Hence: tackling Europe as an “Unitas Complex”.
Evaluating policy in its entirety, looking at interplay between regulation and support
mechanisms.

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, c. A critical approach
A critical reflex that combines evidence and critical evaluation.

• Balance or imbalance initiatives?
• Coherence of initiatives? Econ vs cult; HW vs SW; P vs D
• Continuity or ad hoc/incremental?
• Proactive or reactive policies?
• Too sui generis or too generic?
• Momentum what about timing?
• Citizen or consumer?
• Top-down or bottom-up?
• Cultural or economic objectives?
• Complementarity HW/SW/P/D
• Respect Consumer or rather Citizen interests.
• Are decisions based on consultation, consensus building or corporatist reflex?

d. A chronological approach

Electronic communication package Digital Services Act
Satcab Artificial Intelligence Act
Copyright

IV. What do you know about Europe?
a. European Union Leadership

1. Who is the head of the European Commission?
a. Ursala Von der Leyen

2. Who is the head of the European Parliament?
a. Roberta Metsola, former David Sassoli

3. Which country holds presidency of the EU?
a. Belgium in January 2024-July, followed by Hungary July-December 2024.
b. Holding presidency of the EU is not just a symbolic thing. It means that the bulk of
the preparatory work must happen in that country.

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, b. Key EU concepts and terms

1. What’s the difference between a regulation and a directive?
a. Both can be considered European laws.
b. A regulation is directly applicable in all member states. E.G.: GDPR. You would go for
a regulation if you want your legislation to be as harmonised as possible. It wouldn’t
work if all member states could add their own specific accents in or specific aspects
on top of it, so it needs to be a regulation.
c. A directive is a law. It is never a suggestion. Each EU member state can make it
stricter and/or add specific legislation. E.G.: The Audiovisual Media Service Directive.
In the AMSD it says that there can only be a maximum of 20% of advertising per hour
(= 20% barrier). That maximum is not something that an EU Member State can divert
from. If a country thinks that this is not enough to protect minors, then they could say
it’s only 15% advertising. They can never allow more than the minimum of Europe.
They can never be less strict, but they can always be stricter.

2. What is creative Europe?
a. Creative Europe is a European Commission's support programme that encompasses
a program specifically dedicated to media and a program to culture. It supports film
distribution, production, development, screenwriting, networking etc.
b. It is the biggest support programme for the film industry in Europe. If you go see a
film in an arthouse cinema, then you see a leader with: “This cinema is member of
the European Cinema Network.” This indicates the support programme creative
Europe.

3. What is subsidiarity?
a. The principle of subsidiarity is defined in Article 5(3) of the Treaty on European
Union. It aims to ensure that decisions are taken at the closest possible level to the
citizen and that constant checks are made to verify that action at the European
Union (EU) level is justified in light of the possibilities available at the national,
regional or local level.
b. = Subsidiarity means that rules are made on the level that is closest to the citizens.
The idea is that you must be as close to the citizens as possible and you need to go to
the level that is closest to the citizens.
c. E.g., The policies and the regulations need to be made on the level that is closest to
the citizen and the level that is deemed closest as necessary. For example, culture
and education are considered a competence of the EU member state which means
that the European Union cannot say anything about it. What they CAN do is having
support measures in place for culture, support education, create mobility for
students, etc. But Europe cannot say what needs to be done in teaching programmes
in different EU member states. That’s the principle of subsidiarity.

!! Television audiovisual is a bit different because that is considered a service, and a service is
part of the internal market. So there Europe does have the competence to regulate!!

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, 4. What does ‘DG’ stand for?
a. Director General. The European Commission is organised into policy departments,
known as Directorates-General (DGs), which are responsible for different policy
areas. DGs develop, implement, and manage EU policy, law, and funding
programmes.

5. What is the Schengen zone or Schengen Agreement?
a. It is an intergovernmental agreement (like the Eurozone) between EU member states
for freedom of movement. They dropped customs cheques and to also allow free
movement.
b. This is NOT a European Union legislation, but a collaboration between the EU
member states. This also applies to the Bologna Agreement, which is an accord
stating that European countries will harmonize all bachelor’s and master’s programs,
adopting a unified system of bachelor's and master's degrees moving forward. This is
also NOT a European Union legislation. This is an agreement between EU member
States. This is why Europe, the European Union itself, does not regulate education.

6. What is Co-decision? (= the key procedure for European Union legislation)
a. Codecision is the European Union legislative procedure where a proposal from the
European Commission is negotiated and adopted jointly by the Council of the
European Union (= Council of Ministers) and the European Parliament.
= It means that the Council of the European Union (= Council of Ministers) and the
European Parliament must agree on the same text.

Summary of the Co-decision Procedure:
• The European Commission proposes legislation.
• The European Parliament and Council of the EU must agree on the same text (they
negotiate, amend, and vote).
• A democratic deficit led to the Parliament gaining more power.
• Ongoing dialogue: constant negotiations over months or years.
• Final adoption: Both institutions (= the Council of the European and the European
Parliament) must agree on the text for it to pass.
This co-decision procedure ensures that both the people's representatives (European Parliament)
and the governments of EU member states (Council) have an equal say in the law-making process,
making the EU more democratic and balanced.

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, 7. What is article 7?
a. Purpose: Article 7 outlines the process for dealing with a member state that violates
EU values (such as democracy, human rights, and the rule of law).
b. If a member state violates EU principles to a serious extent, Article 7 allows for
sanctions, including the possibility of the member state being suspended from its
EU voting rights or, in extreme cases, being expelled from the EU. Article 7 says that
if a member state is behaving too badly, then the member state can be kicked out of
the European Union.
c. The EU has limited tools to address member states that do not comply with EU laws
or values. Economic measures (e.g., fines or withholding funds) are possible but
are often seen as ineffective or difficult to enforce. Article 7 is the strongest tool
the EU must address non-compliance, but it is also seen as a drastic measure with
significant consequences, and there is no turning back once it is invoked.

c. EU Institutions

1. What is the difference between the European Council and the Council of the European
Union?

The European Council The Council of the European Union (EU)
Europese Raad Raad van de Europese Unie
European Council = Leaders Council of the EU = Ministers
• The European Council is the Heads of • 1 one of the 3 institutions that must agree
States and the High Representative for on new legislation.
Foreign Affairs. • Role: Negotiating and adopting EU
• Role: Defining the EU’s general political legislation (in most cases with the
direction and priorities (strategy. European Parliament).
• Members: Heads of state or government • Members: Representative of each EU
of the EU countries, the presidents of the member state at ministerial level,
European Council and of the European grouped by policy area (=sector-specific
Commission. legislation, policy-making).
• The European Council does NOT adopt • The council of the European Union, or
EU legislation. also the Council of Ministers is a
collection of ministers in each
department. E.G.: the Council of
Agriculture, Education, etc.

2. What is the difference between the Council of Europe and the European Council?

The Council of Europe (Raad van Europa) = Human Rights Watchdog (broader, pan-European).

The Council of Europe is NOT part of the EU institutional setup. It is an intergovernmental
organisation based in Strasbourg (France) that protects human rights, democracy, and the rule
of law. They decide on matters that, for media are very relevant when it comes to plurality,
protection of journalism etc.

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