Spain asks to increase to 30% the quota of European content that should spread Netflix or iTunes

France and Greece support raising it to 40% and Romania asks to reach 50%

   The Minister of Education, Culture and Sports, Íñigo Méndez de Vigo, has defended to increase to 30% the quota of the European content that would be forced to spread in the European Union the platforms of payment by viewing in Internet, like the Americans Netflix and iTunes , instead of the 20% proposed by the European Commission in May as part of its legislative proposal to modernize the Community rules on audiovisual services.

"We support the reinforcement of the presence of the share of European cinema in the platforms and in concrete we will defend an increase of the percentage destined to European work within the catalog to 30%", has defended the minister in a public debate with his counterparts of the EU on the new proposed regulation.

France has requested that the European works quota "increase from 20 to 40%", something that has supported Greece, and Romania has asked to raise it to "50%".

The United Kingdom has supported the objective of the proposal to promote European contents but has questioned that "quotas are the most appropriate to achieve this objective" and has underlined the importance of the market being guided by "demand", instead of " dues".

Finland has also defended that "quantitative quotas should not be the main tool to promote European content" and has defended that "other more flexible means" such as their distribution via public audiovisual services.

The quotas has been one of the issues debated among others by the Twenty-eight this Tuesday, that commissar of Economy and Digital Society, Günther Oettinger, has defended that "they contribute to the education of the European citizen" and has insisted on the need to offer "sufficient contents of Europe ".

Canon to video on demand services

The Netherlands and Luxembourg have rejected outright the proposal of the European Commission to allow the imposition of a fee or fee for video-on-demand services to finance the promotion of European works.

The Netherlands has said that it is "concerned" about the "possibility of imposing a fee, a fee, on video-on-demand services in the country of destination", "an unnecessary measure", which will have "far-reaching consequences" and could lead to the deviation of the "country of origin, which is a principle that has been essential in creating a single market for online audiovisual services", while Luxembourg has defended its "cross-border vision" and has considered that the proposal "discourages the cross-border provision of services".

The Commissioner of Economy and Digital Society, Günther Oettinger, has defended the importance of offering "sufficient contents of Europe" and has insisted that European audiovisual works "contribute to the education of European citizens" and has asked the Netherlands and Luxembourg to accept the proposal on the canon to finance the promotion of European works after remembering that they are already applied in countries like France and Germany and European legal services have said that "it is legal" and make it clear that "the principle of the country of origin does not It is compromised. "

"Precisely what we have in our proposal is the current practice, it does not oblige any State to impose canons, but those who do it are covered by this legislative proposal," he said.

Discrepancies between countries

Oettinger has been confident that "the latest discrepancies" between member states "can be resolved to reach a decision by next summer" and thanked his "constructive" proposals.

The Spanish minister has advanced "the support of Spain to move forward" after considering "relevant" the extension of the obligation of promoting European work to service providers on demand, while defending "the equalization of the obligations of the new intermediaries in the market with the traditional ones ".

He has also called for "greater clarification" on the legal effects of the regulations and has supported France's request to include "the fight against the apology of terrorism" in the regulations. France has insisted that countries should "be able to intervene in their territory" against the problematic content and has warned that "the apology of terrorism" can not be integrated "simply in the incitement to hatred and violence."

Germany has made it clear that "the independence of national regulators can not be called into question" and has rejected the European group of audiovisual services regulators (ERGA) taking over control and supervision at European level. "We do not want a Europeanization of regulatory competition, it is still a thing of the member states," the commissioner said.