European Community Sets Quota for Television Imports

Despite intensive U.S. government and industry lobbying, the 12-nation European Community on Tuesday approved a non-binding quota that will limit imported television programs to no more than half of all transmissions in member countries.

The law, which sets common television standards throughout the community, excludes news, sports, advertising and teletext services from the quota provision.

It was adopted at a meeting of EC foreign ministers in Luxembourg by a 10-2 vote.

Member states have two years to implement the law, which calls on them to reserve “where practicable” a majority of their transmission time for works of European origin.

American film industry groups were quick to condemn the quota.

“The European Community today in my judgment took a step backward in time,” Jack Valenti, chairman of the Motion Picture Assn. of America, said in a prepared statement. “They said ‘no’ to competition and viewers’ choice and ‘yes’ to trade barriers. It is not the wise compass course into a future which depends on a growing global marketplace.”

Despite such reactions, the new law is likely to have little immediate impact on the sale of American TV productions in Europe, even though they constitute the overwhelming majority of imported material aired in EC countries.

The words “where practicable” effectively provide a loophole allowing countries to avoid the 50% limit if they wish, analysts noted.

Also, the volume of American productions exported to Europe is currently below the 50% level, according to EC statistics. U.S. material now makes up about 40% of entertainment programming in the community, although this figure varies from country to country.

Tuesday’s vote followed a lengthly debate among EC countries, which in the end split between a majority favoring non-binding quotas and a vocal minority, headed by France and Belgium, pushing for enforceable limits.

Earlier drafts of the legislation were more toughly worded, containing a 60% European content requirement without any loophole.

Many predicted that if the new law had failed to pass, U.S. film makers could have faced a jungle of differing quotas by individual member states.

The new law comes at a time when the once-small, staid, government-dominated European television sector is being transformed into a highly competitive commercial industry by privatization and the growth in satellite and cable transmissions.

The number of channels in Western Europe is expected to double over the next decade. European program makers fear that their industries could be overwhelmed by American imports in the scramble to meet the demand for the thousands of additional programming hours that will be needed.

A meeting of about 300 film and television industry leaders last weekend in Paris called for measures to restructure their industry to pool technical knowledge, attract more finance and facilitate co-productions between countries.

Many of those at the meeting expressed concern at a possible loss of European cultural identity in the face of increased American imported material.

Some delegates, however, denounced the quota provision as an infringement of freedom of expression and free speech.

Political analysts here questioned whether the quota might contravene the European Convention on Human Rights, which guarantees free speech.

“If I were going to fight the quota provision, I think I would argue on those grounds,” said Stanley Crossick, chairman of the respected Brussels-based consultants C + L Belmont.

The U.S. government had challenged the quota on commercial rather than humanitarian grounds, arguing that it is a restraint of trade.

However, during a recent European trip, U.S. Trade Representative Carla A. Hills compared the imposition of quotas on imported television programs to limiting the percentage of foreign-authored books at a public library.