§ Sir Anthony DurantTo ask the Secretary of State for National Heritage (1) what is his policy regarding the European Audiovisual Green Paper's suggestion of tightening the enforcement rules on the level of European programme content in broadcast television;
(2) what is his policy towards the continuance of the quotas on the levels of European programmes set out in article 4 of the broadcasting directive; and when the directive is to be reviewed.
§ Mr. DorrellIn the Government's view, the flexibility in applying the European programme content requirements afforded by the present wording of the EC broadcasting directive must be retained to avoid risking damage to the growth and development of the sector. We would not favour any proposal to remove this flexibility. We expect the European Commission's conclusions, following the review of the directive which it has conducted, to be published before the end of the year.
§ Sir Anthony DurantTo ask the Secretary of State for National Heritage what assessment he has made of the compliance with existing GATT rules of article 4 of the European broadcasting directive.
§ Mr. DorrellAs we said in our response to the European Commission's Green Paper on European Union audiovisual policy, we would oppose any steps which would undermine the existing flexibility and relative openness to competition from outside the Union. We noted that even the existing provisions of article 4 of the directive carried the risk of successful challenge by our trading partners under the existing GATT rules.