WRITTEN QUESTION No. 4078/97 by Monica BALDI to the Commission. Anti-Italian previews on Channel Four
C 196/72 EN Official Journal of the European Communities 22. 6. 98 (98/C 196/98) WRITTEN QUESTION E-4078/97 by Monica Baldi (UPE) to the Commission (14 January 1998) Subject: Anti-Italian previews on Channel Four The anti-Italian previews of the Italy-Russia football match recently broadcast on the British television channel, Channel Four were a serious affront to our country and an incitement to intolerance and violence. What action does the Commission intend to take to prevent the media from violating the principles of peace and tolerance on which the EU is based and that of respect for the national identities of its Member States enshrined in Article F of the Common Provisions of the TEU? Answer given by Mr Oreja on behalf of the Commission (24 February 1998) The Commission was not aware of the transmission by Channel 4 in the United Kingdom of the trailers mentioned by the Honourable Member. It immediately took the matter up with the British authorities. They have informed the Commission that such matters are regulated in the United Kingdom by the Independent television commission (ITC) which is responsible for applying those national rules that implement Directive 97/36/EC of the Parliament and of the Council of 30 June 1997 amending Council Directive 89/552/EEC on the coordination of certain provisions laid down by law, regulation or administrative action in Member States concerning the pursuit of television broadcasting activities (the television without frontiers directive) which provides the legal framework at Community level for broadcasting activities (1). Also, the Broadcasting standards commission (BSC) investigates complaints under its code of practice, to which all British broadcasters adhere. Both these bodies have investigated the matter and have come to the conclusion that, although the trailers were a poor attempt at humour, they did not constitute a breach of the taste and decency regulations according to United Kingdom standards. It should be noted that the trailers were only broadcast for the first match and were not repeated for the second match. Furthermore, there has been correspondence between the British minister with responsibility for sports and the president of the Italian national olympic committee which is in charge of sports in Italy, in which the British minister states that he wholeheartedly agrees that material should not be broadcast which can be seen as advocating inappropriate attitudes among spectators of international games. In the circumstances, the Commission believes that although this incident was unfortunate, it does not appear to constitute a breach of Community law and it is confident that it will not be repeated. (1) OJ L 202, 30. 7. 1997. (98/C 196/99) WRITTEN QUESTION P-4079/97 by Georg Jarzembowski (PPE) to the Commission (18 December 1997) Subject: Ground-handling services The Council decided on 15 October 1996 to adopt Directive 96/67/EC (1) on access to the ground-handling market at Community airports. Pursuant to Article 23 of the directive, the deadline for transposing it into national law is no later than one year from the date of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Communities. This deadline expired on 26 October 1997. The directive aims to open up ground-handling services to competition after decades of near-monopoly conditions at airports and to allow market access to new suppliers. Against this background, can the Commission say: 1. Which Member States have transposed the directive into national law, by the deadline or to date? 2. Has it already verified whether the legislation of the Member States which have transposed it is actually in line with the directiveís provisions? If so, what was the result? If not, when will it do so?