In a tense debate in the Parliament in Brussels yesterday (8 October), MEPs argued about the relevance of bringing national matters to the fore in the EU assembly.
The centre-right and right-wing groups (European People's Party, EPP; European Conservatives and Reformists, ECR; and Europe of Freedom and Democracy, EFD) unanimously backed the thesis that a debate on the alleged threat to freedom of information in Italy should be held in the Italian parliament rather than in Brussels or Strasbourg.
EPP group chair Joseph Daul denounced "the unfortunate use of this European institution for dealing with a national debate" and underlined that "the Italian Republic works as it should in Europe, democratically and with respect for the rule of law".
The Parliament nonetheless agreed on Wednesday (7 October) to vote on the issue at its next plenary session in Strasbourg, to take place on 19-22 October.
Social Democrat, Liberal and extreme left MEPs, in contrast, argued that the Italian situation, with a media tycoon-turned-prime minister, is an anomaly of European democracy and risks being exported to other member states if no action is taken.
EU directive on media pluralism?
Centre-left MEPs proposed that a new EU directive on media pluralism should be adopted by the European institutions to regulate the media landscape against dangers posed by media concentration. Berlusconi, Rupert Murdoch and other tycoons would likely be the target of the new rules.
The EPP appeared open to the idea of debating a possible EU directive on media pluralism, but stressed that strong support from member states would be necessary.
The European Commission, for its part, issued a cool response to the idea of a new directive. "Would legislation really solve the problem? Could we justify this under existing EU competences? Is there a cross-border dimension? All this would need to be clarified before we could start a legislative process," EU Media Commissioner Viviane Reding told MEPs during the debate.
She reminded the Parliament that the EU executive had already tried to push for such a directive in the nineties, but faced with total opposition from member states, the project collapsed. "Such a directive was considered to be far outside the competences of the EU," she recalled.
The Berlusconi saga
Although officially justified by a need to discuss the issue of media pluralism in Europe, the debate in the Parliament was a thinly-veiled informal trial of Berlusconi's alleged excessive power in Italy.
As for Berlusconi himself, the Italian prime minister had other personal concerns to deal with yesterday after the Italian constitutional court rejected the so-called 'Lodo Alfano', a law strongly desired by Berlusconi to guarantee top political officials in Italy immunity from prosecution.
Although such legislation is in force in other EU countries, such as France, the Italian top court ruled it unconstitutional. As a consequence, the prime minister will now have to face a number of trials which were frozen by 'Lodo Alfano'. He currently stands accused of bribing judges and fiscal evasion.
