SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
From Variety:
Quotas obligating Netflix, Amazon and other streaming services operating in the European Union to dedicate at least 30% of their on-demand catalogs to local content are set to become enshrined in law soon.
Roberto Viola, head of the European Commission department that regulates communications networks, content and technology, said the new rules, which will also demand visibility and prominence of European product on streamers, are on track to be approved in December.
"We just need the final vote, but it's a mere formality," he told Variety at the Venice Film Festival.
Netflix, Amazon and other streamers will be required to fund TV series and films produced in Europe by commissioning content, acquiring it or paying into national film funds through a small surcharge added to their subscription fee, something which is already happening in Germany. Netflix tried unsuccessfully to fight the German surcharge in court.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Arik on Tuesday September 04 2018, @04:33PM (2 children)
Annoyances like that are part of the picture, but I rather think the thrust of Brexit was people deciding national sovereignty was actually kind of an important thing to hold on to, particularly given how annoying the EU turns out to be.
Anyway, if I recall correctly the EU legislative process has an unelected chamber and an elected chamber, with the unelected chamber in the drivers seat, but the elected chamber (European Parliament) does have some ability to obstruct and the GP should have an MEP he can write. But typically the other chamber seems to have more control over the process. And then typically the way the EU legislation is written, they're often 'enabling legislation' which just authorizes/obligates others, national government and those unelected bureaucrats, to go on and write the actual nuts and bolts of what will be enforced under that authority.
It's a particularly byzantine process and at some points it certainly looks to have been deliberately designed to discourage citizen involvement in the process.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 04 2018, @06:07PM
It looks like they have an essentially federalist structure. Keep in mind that federalism is why we have things like the electoral college in the US. Also in the US, the Senate is generally considered the "upper house" and the House of Representatives the "lower house" of the legislature. The House of Representatives iirc has always been directly elected, but senators were originally appointed by the state legislatures. (So the US Senate was originally, prior to the Seventeenth Amendment, indirect election, because presumably the people in each state directly elected their state legislature.)
According to Wikipedia [wikipedia.org]:
(Score: 4, Informative) by quietus on Tuesday September 04 2018, @06:11PM
You do not recall correctly.
There are 3 parties involved in legislation at the EU, all of which are elected. One is the Council of Ministers, which consist of all ministers of the member nations.
The second party is the European Commission, which is the administrative arm of the EU: their role is to coordinate between the Council of Ministers, on the one hand, and the European Parliament, the third party in the legislative process.
The Ministers, and hence the Council of Ministers, are directly elected through national elections. The European Parliament members are directly elected through European elections. The European Commission, in turn, is indirectly elected through the Council of Ministers.
The Parliament has to give their fiat to the whole of the proposed Commission, after proposed members are interrogated about their subject area (agriculture, competition, etcetera) in a public session. Proposed Commission members who have bumbled in their answers will be rejected by Parliament -- either they behave in a second-chance grilling, or a new candidate is proposed, after which the process restarts.
This is a regular feature of the election procedure -- proposed Commission members being booted -- and would be a nice to have (Parliament rejecting proposed ministers after a public grilling about their expertise) in a couple of national governments that come to mind, too.