EPRA participates as Observer to ERGA Meeting

EPRA participated as an Observer in the 6^th Plenary Meeting of the European Regulators Group for Audiovisual Media Services (ERGA) which took place on 29 October 2016 in Brussels.

On that occasion, the ERGA adopted its report on Accessibility whose main finding is to recommend further research on the accessibility of audiovisual media services to disabled people. The Internal report of the Digital European Toolkit (DET) was also approved by ERGA members.

The ERGA Work Programme for 2017 was adopted. The four subgroups will be:

• ERGA sub-group on Exchanging Experiences and Good Practices - aiming at further deepening of the European Digital Toolkit (DET) and proposing the development of ERGA Academia (Chair: Damir Hajduk, AEM - HR)

• ERGA sub-group on Preparing ERGA and NRAs for Self and Co-regulation – given the reinforced role of self- and co-regulation in the proposal for the AVMSD this group will aim at preparing the NRAs for the new tasks. It will exchange good practices regarding the establishment of self and co-regulatory systems (Chair: Ofcom - UK)

• ERGA sub-group on future-proofing ERGA - it will involve improving ERGA internal procedures and if necessary providing practical and technical advice to the European Commission (Chair: AGCOM - IT)

• ERGA sub-group Future-proof European Audiovisual Regulation: Protection of Minors – this group will continue the work initiated in 2016 by ERGA Task Force on Protection of Minors (Chair: Luboš Kukliš, CBR - SK)

Elections took place. Madeleine de Cock Buning, Chairperson of the Dutch Regulator CdvM remains ERGA Chairperson for a further year. Damir Hajduk, Vice Chairperson and Deputy Director of the AEM in Croatia and Luboš Kukliš, Chief Executive of the CBR in Slovakia were appointed ERGA Vice-Chairpersons.

EPRA was represented at the meeting by Chairperson Celene Craig and Secretary Emmanuelle Machet. On that occasion, Celene Craig briefly presented the salient points of the newly adopted 3-year Strategy Statement reaffirming EPRA’s core purpose as independent platform for the sharing of relevant information, best practice, experience and expertise. The Strategy also clarifies the role and positioning of EPRA in relation to ERGA.

In her view EPRA and ERGA are complementary. In areas where there is possible overlap - namely the exchange of best practice – the introduction of a structured cooperation between the two platforms would be desirable to avoid duplication and to optimise resources. She conveyed her appreciation that ERGA had been represented at both EPRA meetings in 2016 and reiterated her willingness to discuss with the ERGA Presidency on how to achieve such a structured cooperation. Celene Craig also reminded the participants of the current call for topics for the EPRA Work Programme 2017 and welcomed any input from ERGA.

During the meeting Internal Guidelines for the ERGA Contact Network were also agreed on and the new website of ERGA - which comes in addition to the dedicated section on the European Commission website - was presented to the participants.

On 3 February 2014, the European Commission adopted a Decision on establishing the ERGA and setting the objectives for the Group:

- to advise and assist the Commission in its work, to ensure a consistent implementation of the AVMSD as well as in any other matters related to audiovisual media services within the Commission’s competence.
- to facilitate cooperation between the regulatory bodies in the EU
- to allow for an exchange of experience and good practices.

• ERGA Press release

• Agenda of the meeting

Source: EPRA Secretariat/ERGA website