Media Study - Medija centar Beograd

There is a substantive body of case law at the level of the European Courts which touches upon these
issues. In the Danish case (T-309/04; 329/04, 336/04), the Court of First Instance (CFI) has referred to
a judgment of the European Court of Justice (155/73 – Sacchi) where the court acknowledged the
right to define public services of general economic interest within the meaning of a full public service
broadcasting program. The CFI saw this conclusion confirmed by the Amsterdam Protocol. It went on
to state that the scope of the public mission must not be confused with the way the public mission is
financed. It concluded that the Member States were allowed to define public services of general
economic interest broadly and quality related, so tat programming can be diverse and also include
parts financed by advertising. Thus, the commitments made by Germany in the above referenced case
may be stricter than required by the subsequent precedent of the CFI.
The question whether financing by a subscription fee / contribution constitutes state aid is not finally
resolved. Some judgments of the Court of Justice seem to indicate that this may not be the case as the
contribution does not come from the state budget (indications in the ‘Preussen Electra’ and Ferring /
Acoss cases 2001, and in the Altmark case from 2003). By contrast, a more recent decision on public
procurement from 2007 seem to point in the opposite direction, arguing that the subscription fee /
contribution is based on a state procedure, thus making the public broadcaster a public entity within
the meaning of procurement rules.
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