Audiovisual Policy in the Enlarged European Union

Abstract

This article is intended to give a general overview of the audiovisual policy and audiovisual market of the European Union (EU) linked to the issue of the Eastern enlargement of the EU. EU audiovisual policy is the arena for divergent interests and arguments, both economic and cultural, European and national. Accession negotiations in the sphere of cultural and audiovisual policy largely came down on legislative alignment with the acquis, in particular with the Television Without Frontiers Directive (Council of the European Communities, 1989; European Parliament and Council of the European Union, 1997) as the single important piece of audiovisual legislation. Alignment has been achieved by a "second wave" of media laws (1998 to 2002) in Central and Eastern European countries following the "first wave" of media laws in the first half of the 1990s. Conflicts do arise mainly as a result of the conflict between national and European interests (culture, identity) on the one hand and the power struggle between the EU and the combined forces of the United States and the World Trade Organization on the other hand.