THE European Parliament has voted for a strict quota regime for European television, ensuring a major row with the Commission which could threaten the EU's entire media policy.
Parliament voted for a 51 per cent quota of all television material to be provided by European programme makers, with no let out clause. It also voted for an amendment which will exclude studio made programmes, such as The Late Late Show and Kenny Live, from being considered part of the quota. This has been opposed by RTE.
The all embracing directive, known as "Television Without Frontiers", is designed to tighten the existing directive, which 51 per cent of programmes to be made in Europe, but provides a let out with the words "where practicable".
Following months of debate and argument with France leading the quota lobby in the name of European "culture" the Commission was unable to find agreement and in effect simply asked that the existing policy be renewed for a further 10 years, with areas such as teleshopping, video on demand and other recent developments added to the policy.
Only the European People's Party, which includes Fine Gael, and the Liberals, which include the Munster MEP, Mr Pat Cox, voted for the Commission's more liberal proposal, despite massive lobbing of MEPs by commercial television interests.
On the pro quota side, MEPs have been lobbied intensively by film and television producers, who have called for a tight quota system to boost the European film and programme making industry.
The tone of the debate was set by the chairwoman of the culture committee, Ms Luciana Castellina, who said that the priority was to safeguard European culture and relaunch the European film industry, which was under threat from mass importation of US films.
This should also apply to new services such as teleshopping. "The aim must be to respect the cultural diversity of Europe and not allow a cultural monopoly to destroy Europe's culture."
However, not all members of the committee felt the same way. The Fine Gael MEP for Dublin, Ms Mary Banotti, who is a vice chairwoman of the committee, said that the parliament was trying to do the impossible by producing measures to regulate one industry television, while attempting to protect and regenerate another, the film industry.
She said that some MEPs had declared themselves the sole arbiters of European culture. "Indeed, there was a distinct whiff of cultural fascism in the air at times", she added.
Mr Pat "The Cope" Gallagher said that the proposed directive would benefit Irish broadcasting and that the strict quotas would serve to increase diversity.
The parliament also voted for a proposal requiring all new television sets to be fitted with a "chip" which would enable parents to encrypt programmes not suitable for children. This measure would also require countries to establish a classification system similar to film classification.
The proposal will have to be given a second reading and receive approval from the Council and the Commission. As this is unlikely to be forthcoming, it is expected that the conciliation system will have to be brought into play, probably during Ireland's presidency, in order to secure a compromise.
In the meantime, lobbying of MEPs will continue in an attempt to change the vote when the proposal comes before the parliament again.
The Commission has informed Ms Banotti that it is examining the 30 per cent quota for Irish produced music which is required by the Independent Radio and Television Commission for local radio stations in Ireland.