It is urgent to wait. As December 31 approaches, and with it the end of the provisional public broadcasting financing system established in 2022 to compensate for the disappearance of the fee, senators did not include the issue on the agenda of their October plenary sessions. . This was decided by the conference of presidents, which was held on Wednesday afternoon, September 25, at the Luxembourg Palace in Paris.
However, a proposal for an organic law presented by Catherine Morin-Desailly (UDI, Seine-Maritime), Cédric Vial (LR, Savoy), Roger Karoutchi (LR, Hauts-de-Seine), Laurent Lafon (UDI, Val-de-Seine) -Marga) “and several of his companions”on July 10, is waiting to be debated. But “although neither Prime Minister Michel Barnier, who attended this meeting, Not even the new Minister of Culture, Rachida Dati, has yet commented on the issue, it would have been premature to return to the text.”analyzes a Senate interlocutor.
In fact, the senators’ organic law proposal aims to modify the organic law relating to finance laws, “so that taxes of all kinds can be allocated directly to public broadcasters”. This would allow it to be financed with a fraction of the VAT revenues, that is, a resumption of the system imagined, in disaster, two years ago. But in May, deputies Quentin Bataillon (Loire, Renaissance) and Jean-Jacques Gaultier (LR, Vosges) presented a proposal for an organic law that recommended another financing method, through a tax on income. A solution that the Ministry of Culture but also the Ministry of Economy and Finance welcomed.
Not only did none of the deputies find their way back to the Assembly after the legislative elections of June 30 and July 7, but the government has changed and the objectives of the M.me Date with him. The merger of public broadcasting, which it hoped to approve at the beginning of summer, is no longer considered a priority, unlike the need to find lasting financing to guarantee its independence for France Télévisions, Radio France, France Médias Monde and the National Audiovisual . Institute.
A new rate?
Since prudence is the mother of security, the senators preferred to rule out any risk of failure. A move to budgeting would be synonymous with a disaster scenario, contrary to the decision of the Constitutional Council of August 2022 that orders the legislator “ “set the amount of income so that public broadcasting companies can carry out the public service missions entrusted to them.” after December 31. It would also establish an exception to the European Freedom of the Media Law, the European regulation in force since May, which requires member states to guarantee these companies sufficient long-term resources, but also corresponding to previously established objectives.
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