§ Sir Dudley Smithasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what is the policy of Her Majesty's Government on the proposals in the European Economic Community Green Paper entitled "Television Without Frontiers"; what representations he has made to the Commission on this matter; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Giles ShawThe Government have not reached a firm view on whether the Community has competence to legislate on broadcasting matters. We support the general objective of the Green Paper, which is to facilitate television broadcasting across frontiers and thereby assist the process of European integration, but we do not consider that the case for Community legislation to achieve this objective has yet been made out. In the Government's view, the Green Paper lays too much emphasis upon the economic aspects of broadcasting and fails to give due weight both to the wider cultural considerations and to the role of the Council of Europe in facilitating trans-frontier broadcasting among a wider grouping of European nations. These and other more detailed points have been made to the Commission in the official discussions in Brussels.