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AIG Newsletter 3 October 2022

Advertising Information Group-Newsletter

Lesedauer: 2 Minuten

13.03.2023

IG DIRECTORS’ LUNCH

AIG Directors' Lunch, 28 September

Last week the AIG held its annual AIG Directors’ Lunch in Brussels with European associations. Officials joined us from the offices of Andreas Schwab MEP and Lukas Mandl MEP (EPP), who both sit on committees that work on issues impacting advertising. The key themes of discussion included the value of advertising to the EU economy, the benefits of online advertising, the distinction between political advertising and commercial issues-based advertising, and the need of effective enforcement of existing EU legislation.

EUROPEAN MEDIA FREEDOM ACT

European Commission unveils European Media Freedom Act.

The European Commission is seeking feedback on the new European Media Freedom Act (deadline for comments 23 November).

The Commission’s proposal includes safeguards against political interference in editorial decisions and against surveillance. It sets out measures to protect the independence of editors, as well as measures to disclose conflicts of interest. The Act also creates a new independent European Board for Media Services - a European watchdog for media freedom comprised of national media authorities. The new body seeks to promote the effective and consistent application of the EU media law framework.

POLITICAL ADVERTISING

EP publishes amendments to transparency and targeting of political advertising file

EP Committees working on the European Commission’s proposal for a Regulation on the transparency and targeting of the political advertising have published their amendments.

The lead IMCO Committee tabled 686 amendments (found here and here), which would need to be discussed by the whole committee before being put to a vote. The JURI Committee also published a number its amendments, that, if adopted, would need to be taken into account by IMCO when finalising the Parliament’s position for first reading.

DIGITAL

Digital Europe Programme: Commission opens calls to invest €200 million in digital tech

Last week the Commission opened a third set of calls for proposals of the Digital Europe Programme, worth up to €200m, under the 2021-2022 Work Programmes.

The calls are open to businesses, public administrations, and other entities from EUMS, EFTA/EEA countries, and other associated countries. This funding will see an investment of €170m in data spaces, the development of AI, cloud-to-edge infrastructure, as well as investment in specialised education programmes in the area of advanced digital technologies.

Whilst the deadline for this call is 16 November, further calls under the 2021-2022 Work Programme will be published in the coming weeks.

DATA

MEPs discuss data protection with Irish politicians

A delegation of MEPs visited the Republic of Ireland earlier this month to hold discussions on data protection with Irish politicians, officials from the Data Protection Commission, technology companies and other experts. The delegation examined the implementation of GDPR, its enforcement (including the functioning of the “one-stop-shop” mechanism) and the operation of the Office of the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC).

Leading the delegation, Maite Pagazaurtundúa MEP (Renew), expressed the EP’s concerns that the Irish data protection authority was obstructing the one-stop-shop mechanism, and pushed for an independent review of the DPC’s procedures and actions.