Commissioning Brussels

Michael Hedges November 30, 2009 - Follow on Twitter

The analogue days at the European Commission are numbered. As European Commission President Jose Manuel Barosso made public the EC’s portfolio assignments a flood of speculation rose about impact on the media sector. One certainty is less happiness among big telecoms.

Sr. Barosso announced the 27 portfolios of the Commissioners-designate (November 27) and immediately flew off for Asia. About half the Commissioners will be returning. In recent days he indicated that the portfolios of all returning Commissioners-designate would be shuffled. And that he did.

Each Member State nominates a Commissioner. The EC president organizes the branches then places a nominated Commissioner at head of each. The European Parliament votes on it all. Baring unforeseen difficulties, the new Commissioners will take to their offices January 10th.

For the media hungry the most notable turn of the new Commission is the appearance of Digital Agenda upstaging DG Information Society and Media.  At its head will be Commissioner Neelie Kroes, well known to the likes of Microsoft, Intel and the several public service broadcasters who ran afoul of DG Competition and State aid rules.

Six months ago Commissioner Kroes was thought to be retiring, the Dutch government had not made its nominee known. Commissioner Kroes, in public statements, seemed ready to forgo Brussels. But Sr. Barosso made an appeal to the Member States during the last weeks for nominations of strong women to fill important Commission roles. With the new appointment Commissioner Kroes will also be a vice-president of the Commission.

DG Digital – one early working name was ICT and Internet – will oversee the Audiovisual Services Directive (AVSD) but media, as such, will be obscured by technology. National governments have wanted less interference by the EC on media issues, advertising and State aid infringement proceedings being costly. The MEDIA program that funded European film production is moving, unsurprisingly, to DG Education and Culture.

After serving as Info Society and Media Commissioner, Viviane Reding will move to DG Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship. Big telecoms had hoped they’d seen the last of Commissioner Reding, the recently negotiated telecoms package of EU legislation challenging profit margins with consumer sensitive rules.  Earlier in her term Commissioner Reding negotiated the AVSD, upgrade to Television Without Frontiers, which may have brought most of television into the single market but fell short – not for lack of trying – of recognizing audiovisual content as platform-neutral. That task will now fall to Commissioner Kroes.

Commissioner Reding will continue to look after aspects significant to the European media realm. The Consumer Contract and Marketing Law portfolio moves from DG Health to DG Justice. This will give Commissioner Reding a shot at advertising and marketing, perhaps from a broader consumer protection perspective. Also, DG Justice is absorbing DG Communications, another opportunity for Commissioner Reding to demonstrate media in the communications value chain.

Commissioners Reding and Kroes might have opportunity to work together as they had on State aid issues involving broadcasting. Data protection and privacy will see basic EU level legislation, and soon.  Days before (November 23) the next portfolio designations were announced, Commissioner Reding reiterated opposition to cutting off internet access for suspected illegal file downloading without judicial review.

“If Spain cuts off Internet access without a procedure in front of a judge, it would certainly run into conflict with the European Commission,” she said at a telecom regulation conference.  “We need to find more modern ways to protect intellectual property and artistic creation, but repression alone will not alone solve the problem.” Though Commissioner Reding referenced proposed Spanish law to punish suspected downloaders, both the UK and French governments are pursuing similar legal remedies to a music industry problem. Commissioner Reding will also become a vice president of the Commission.

Considered among the four most powerful portfolios, DG Competition will be led by Joaquin Almunia, who moves from DG Economic and Monitary Affairs. Just as Commissioner Kroes never hesitated crossing giant American tech companies, Microsoft and Intel were just the beginning. DG Competition will likely be looking at Google in the first of many copyright related investigations.

Intellectual property – from copyrights to patents – continues to fall under DG Internal Markets. With Commissioner Charlie McCreevy not returning, Sr. Barosso has proposed Michel Barnier. It is expected that DG Internal Markets will press for greater uniformity in the patchwork of national intellectual property rules. Though, realistically, Commissioners Almunia and Barnier will be investing their considerable diplomatic skills at first with the banking sector.

One not so tiny aspect of the media sector may move from DG Internal Markets to DG Digital. That would be the Conditional Access Directive, which protects pay-TV operators from piracy. The EC looked over the Conditional Access Directive in 2008 and found it needing a bit of freshening as consumers’ access to services – which might be pay-TV, mobile media or satellite radio – might significantly improve in a single market. If it is kept by DG Internal Markets there could be howling from big cable and satellite operators because Commissioner Barnier is widely known as favoring regulation over free markets. But he’ll have enough to sort through with banking regulation topping his agenda.

Obviously, Sr. Barosso’s Commissioner-designates will face scrutiny by the European Parliament. By appearances, there will be few, if any, challenges. It’s fair to recall that Commissioner Reding was named to DG Info Society and Media after the European Parliament rejected an Italian Commissioner-designate and Silvio Berlusconi crony.

But it’s clear that Sr. Barosso is concentrating talent within the College of Commissioners on the three E’s - economics, employment and energy. The European role for media will depend on how well it contributes to those basic headings. Reordering the direction at the EC isn’t purely digital.