Parliament gives green light to MEDIA
After months of uncertainty, the renewal of the agreement between the European Union (E.U.) and Switzerland concerning Swiss membership of the MEDIA Programme has been secured.
For although Parliament had already accepted the renewal and allocated €44m for that purpose, it had been hindered over the last few months by a demand from Brussels that Switzerland should be subject to the so-called country of origin principle applied in EU States. This concerns the free and unrestrained reception and broadcast of television programmes, with their accompanying advertisements (see news).
To satisfy this demand, Switzerland was thus obliged to relax its highly restrictive legislation on alcohol advertising on TV. After months of indecision, the Chambers finally agreed to lift the ban on beer and wine advertisements in order to avoid any discrimination between Swiss and foreign channels.
As a result, all the conditions have now been met for the ratification of the agreement with the EU – provisionally made in 2007 – and for Switzerland’s membership of the MEDIA Programme until 2013.
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