Welcome to the May edition of the revamped EURO INFO newsletter!
In this edition, we look at everything from EU Telecoms reform through to the ambitions of the Bulgarian Presidency to finalise a political deal on the AVMS Directive. We also examine the Commission’s expected paper on AI and highlight a raft of funding updates. The newsletter concludes with a focus on EBU Director General Noel Curran’s participation at the Gala Award Ceremony for Freedom of Expression and also a call for TV, Radio and Online production submissions for Prix Europa 2018.
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TOP STORY
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Platform-to-business practices: Commission legislative proposal published
The Commission recently published a legislative proposal dealing with harmful trading practices and unfair contractual clauses by some online platforms to the detriment of business users.
The initiative follows the Commission's fact-finding exercise which identified issues related to a lack of transparency – notably concerning search rankings – and practices favouring the platforms’ own products and services or discriminating between different 3rd party suppliers and sellers.
The EBU welcomes the proposal as a first step towards a robust European framework that should ultimately tackle unfairness in online platform-to-business relations. In the lead-up to the publication, the EBU sent a letter to relevant Commissioners, President Juncker and other key stakeholders to express support for the initiative. It has also recently set up an ad hoc group on platforms involving interested EBU Members to monitor and feed into the various European initiatives on online platforms, including Platform-to-business.
Read more on the EBU website
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FEATURED FUNDING OPPORTUNITY
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Deadline: 25 May 2018
The European Parliament has launched a tender which seeks a partner to disseminate the results of the European elections in 24 languages on election night. The proposed 20-month services contract worth €2.25 million covers a multilingual website designed to make the results as widely accessible as possible.
Additional information is available here and here.
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QUICK HITS
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Policy updates
European Commission wants to tackle online disinformation. The report published on March 12 requests the creation of a new framework to address the role of online platforms in today’s media environment. Read the EBU's position paper on Fake News here.
European Commission looks to protect whistleblowing. Following a call from the European parliament to better protect whistle-blowers in its Resolution of last October, the European Commission is working on a legislative proposal which was released on 23 April.
EBU’s Noel Curran speaks at Gala Award Ceremony for Freedom of Expression on ‘Difference Day'. On 2 May, EBU Director General Noel Curran spoke at a gala dinner celebrating the UN 'World Press Freedom Day’ which focused on the theme of ‘Voices of resistance’. Read more on the EBU website.
Innovation & research
MediaRoad survey gathers the views of EBU Members. As part of the EU-funded MediaRoad project, the EBU gathers the views of media stakeholders (including EBU Members) on trends and challenges for media innovation, as well as on the required policy actions. The insights gained will feed into the first MediaRoad Vision Document which will present a long-term roadmap and identify policy recommendations, thereby providing EBU Members with an opportunity to contribute to the European Research Agenda for Media beyond 2020. The consultations are open until 10 May 2018.
Want to participate? Click here.
Research & Innovation: The European Research Agenda post-2020 and its R&D framework programme. European policy makers are discussing the future of the European Research Agenda beyond 2020 in the framework of the upcoming proposal on the post-2020 Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) and its R&D scheme under the successor of the Horizon 2020, namely the Framework Programme 9 (FP9). The EBU has submitted its response to the Public Consultation on "EU funds in the area of investment, research & innovation, SMEs and single market". The latest MFF proposal was published on 2 May, followed by the next FP9 proposal on 28 May, and the Creative Europe Proposal on 1 June.
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If you need further information, please contact:
EBU Legal & Policy
Nicola Frank, Head of European Affairs
56 Avenue des Arts, B-1000 Brussels, BELGIUM
brussels@ebu.ch
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