The European Commission has written to Portugal, Slovenia, Finland (concerning the autonomous region of Åland) and the United Kingdom (concerning the British overseas territory Gibraltar) seeking information about their implementation of the Audiovisual Media Services (AVMS) Directive. The Commission has asked the responsible authorities to reply within 10 weeks. The fact-finding letters are part of the Commission’s efforts to ensure that the national media laws of all Member States correctly implement all aspects of the AVMS rules. The requests for information do not imply that the Directive has been incorrectly implemented but simply that, at this stage, the Commission has some outstanding questions concerning their implementation of the Directive.
The Commission sent a first round of letters to 16 Member States in March 2011 (Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Malta, The Netherlands, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Slovakia and the United Kingdom) and a second round of letters to further 8 Member States (Austria, Cyprus, Estonia, Germany, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania and Luxemburg ) in September 2011. Poland has only partially notified some measures to implement the AVMS Directive into its national law and is currently subject to an infringement procedure. Here to read more.
