EU prepares to cut amount of British TV and film shown post-Brexit
Mon 21 Jun 2021
The EU is preparing to act against the “disproportionate” amount of British television and film content shown in Europe in the wake of Brexit, in a blow to the UK entertainment industry and the country’s “soft power” abroad.
The UK is Europe’s biggest producer of film and TV programming, buoyed up by £1.4bn from the sale of international rights, but its dominance has been described as a threat to Europe’s “cultural diversity” in an internal EU document seen by the Guardian.
The issue is likely to join a list of points of high tension in the EU-UK relationship since the country left the single market and customs union, including disputes over the sale of British sausages in Northern Ireland and the issue of licences in fishing waters, which led to Royal Navy patrol boats being deployed to Jersey earlier this year.
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In Brussels’ target this time is the continuing definition of British programmes and film as being “European works”.
Under the EU’s audiovisual media services directive, a majority of airtime must be given to such European content on terrestrial television and it must make up at least 30% of the number of titles on video on demand (VOD) platforms such as Netflix and Amazon.
Swedish PM Lofven facing defeat as no-confidence vote looms
Johan AhlanderSimon Johnson
STOCKHOLM, June 17 (Reuters) - Sweden faces either an election or a caretaker government if a no-confidence vote against Prime Minister Stefan Lofven passes next week as expected, although Lofven said on Thursday he had not decided whether to resign or call a snap poll if he loses.
The far-right Sweden Democrats demanded the vote, scheduled for Monday, after the Left Party, at the other end of the political spectrum, withdrew its support for Lofven over a plan to scrap rent controls on newly built apartments. read more
Germany's Heiko Maas calls for renewal of EU migration deal with Turkey
The EU should update its migration pact with Turkey in a deal that would involve giving more money to Ankara, Germany’s Foreign Minister has said.
Under the 2016 deal, Turkey agreed to stem the number of migrants entering Europe in return for financial support to look after refugees in Turkish territory.
The pact has been criticised and a dispute erupted last year after Turkey allowed thousands of people to enter Greece.
Bulgaria sticks to plans to adopt the euro from Jan 1, 2024
Bulgaria is sticking to its target to adopt the euro currency from January 1, 2024 and plans to start payments in euros without any transitional period once it joins the euro zone, government and central bank officials said on Wednesday.
Bulgaria, one of the European Union’s poorest member states, was admitted together with Croatia to the ERM-2 mechanism, a mandatory stage for joining the euro, last July.
According to a draft national plan for Bulgaria’s euro zone entry approved on Wednesday, Bulgarians will be able to pay also in the national lev currency a month after the adoption of the single currency.
One of the biggest problems countries face when joining the euro is that they can no longer use the exchange rate as a cushion from any economic shock, but Bulgaria already pegs its lev currency to the euro and plans to adopt the single currency at its current fixed rate.
“The introduction of the euro is planned without a transitional period, and the date of adoption of the euro will coincide with its introduction as an official unit of payment,” the central bank and the finance ministry said in a joint statement.
