THE EU: National regulators risk losing control of television content and advertising because of the European Commission's desire for "television without frontiers", several European culture and media ministers warned yesterday.
Sweden and Ireland were most vociferous in their concern that broadcasters could bypass domestic regulations by broadcasting from elsewhere in the union, but they were far from alone.
Yesterday's meeting of EU culture and media ministers in Brussels, chaired by Mr Dermot Ahern, was considering possible revision of the existing EU law, the Television Without Frontiers Directive.
Mr John Browne, the Minister of State, expressed the Republic's view that "increased competition and technical developments in recent years have eroded the ability of smaller member-states to have meaningful national regulation".
Mr Ahern said the TVW directive might be used to target particular audiences, possibly evading national requirements on advertising, propriety or political balance.
The Swedish Minister, Ms Marita Ulvskog, complained about a broadcaster that had set up in Britain and was not subject to Swedish rules governing advertising to children.
The British Minister for Media and Heritage, Lord McIntosh, put up a robust defence of the principle that broadcasters should only be regulated by the country from which they were broadcasting.
Yesterday's council approved the designation of Luxembourg and Sibiu in Romania as European Cities of Culture in 2007 and Liverpool and Stavanger in 2008.