19th ERGA plenary session: European media regulators discuss the role of regulation in a changing audiovisual environment

Arcom summons attention to the ERGA Presidency press release (in English and French)

The 19th plenary meeting of ERGA (European Regulators Group for Audiovisual Media Services) was held in Naples on June 29, 2023. ERGA members met to take stock of work completed and in progress. They exchanged views with the European Commission on major policy initiatives underway at European level, and adopted declarations on the draft European Media Freedom Act (EMFA) and the draft regulation on the transparency and targeting of political advertising, underlining their crucial importance for media regulation and for European democracies.

In its statement on the EMFA, ERGA repeated its support for the fundamental objectives pursued by the text, and welcomed the significant increases achieved by the European co-legislators, notably the recent agreement on the negotiating mandate of the Council of the European Union and the sustained pace at which the work of the European Parliament is progressing. It should indeed be possible to adopt this essential piece of legislation before the end of the current European legislature.

ERGA also reaffirmed its priorities and proposals for improving the EMFA, in particular with regard to media services from outside the European Union, the treatment of media content by online platforms, and the conditions for genuinely fair competition in audience measurement.

Finally, ERGA welcomed the co-legislators' initiatives to strengthen the independence of the future "European Media Services Committee", and stressed the need to guarantee the effective independence of the Committee's secretariat.

Furthermore, in its statement on the regulation on transparency and targeting of political advertising, ERGA repeated its support for the fundamental objectives pursued by this legislation, in particular with regard to the labeling and benchmarking of political advertising. ERGA has proposed the introduction of common standards for three technical aspects of these repositories: data structure, application programming interfaces (APIs) and authentication.

On June 28, 2023, the ERGA plenary session was preceded by a discussion session on vloggers and online age verification tools, with the aim of clarifying and deepening the implementation of the Audiovisual Media Services (AVMS) Directive. During the event, regulators discussed with industry representatives and academics the most effective means of protecting persons under 18.

"The transformation of the audiovisual industry creates new opportunities for the economy, but also potential risks for consumers and challenges for regulators. The provisions of the AVMS Directive must be applied effectively to market players who are active on a global scale and show content on social media, thus reaching viewers directly; regulators, in collaboration with the European Commission, must find the most appropriate measures to meet these challenges and protect citizens effectively. In addition, new legislation will soon be adopted by European co-legislators, adding more tasks and powers to national audiovisuel regulation authorities. Some Member States have already started down this road.So it's high time we looked at these issues and agreed on the new role that media regulators will have in the future," said ERGA Chairman Giacomo Lasorella.

Browse the original press release here

About ERGA:
The European Regulators Group for Audiovisual Media Services (ERGA) is composed of the national regulatory authorities in the field of audiovisual media services. ERGA advises the European Commission and facilitates cooperation between regulatory bodies in the EU. Mr. Karim Ibourki, President of the Belgian French Superior Audiovisual Council (French Superior Audiovisual Council), is the current Chairman of ERGA.