Source: European Parliament
According to the Audiovisual Media Services Directive[1], Member States should be able to take measures to protect the right to information and to ensure wide access by the public to television coverage of national or non-national events of major importance for society.
To this end, each Member State may draw up a list of designated events, national or non-national, which it considers to be of major importance for society.
Member States need to notify such lists of major events to the Commission, in accordance with Article 14(2) of the directive, when they want to obtain mutual recognition from other Member States for the listed events.
Informal contacts between the Commission and the Italian authorities on the update of the list of events of major importance for society started in July 2024.
The purpose of those contacts is to ensure the completeness of the eventual formal notification by the Italian authorities, taking into account the criteria for including events on the list and the need for an in-depth justification for the listed events. The informal contacts went on until March 2025.
The Commission will duly proceed as soon as the formal notification from the Italian authorities is received. Within a period of three months from the notification, the Commission shall verify that the proposed measures are compatible with EU law and communicate them to the other Member States. It shall seek the opinion of the contact committee established pursuant to Article 29 of the Audiovisual Media Services Directive.
- [1] Directive 2010/13/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 10 March 2010 on the coordination of certain provisions laid down by law, regulation or administrative action in Member States concerning the provision of audiovisual media services (Audiovisual Media Services Directive) (Codified version) (OJ L 95, 15.4.2010, p. 1, ELI: https://data.europa.eu/eli/dir/2010/13/oj). https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:02010L0013-20181218