EACA Monthly Newsletter May 2003

EU News

Greek consumers get connected: Commissioner D. Byrne opens a European Consumer Centre in Athens
Health and Consumer Protection Commissioner David Byrne opened in Athens a centre advising Greek consumers on their rights and helping them with any problems they encounter in the EU's Internal Market. The new centre will link Greece to the Europe-wide "Euroguichet" network of consumer advice centres. Though consumer protection has been a priority of Europe for many years, citizens are often unsure of their rights when shopping across borders.

http://europa.eu.int/rapid/start/cgi/guesten.ksh?p_action.gettxt=gt&doc=IP/03/6

European Parliament adopts Final Position on CSR Communication
Recently the MEPs voted on the report of Philip Bushill-Matthews on the Commission's July 2002 Communication concerning Corporate Social Responsibility. In its resolution, the Parliament complains that "the Commission Communication was effectively written before the Parliament's response to the Green Paper had been absorbed" and reiterates its determination to remain part of the discussion process. In its position the Parliament welcomed the establishment of the EU Multi-Stakeholder Forum on CSR as an autonomous group run by its members, which aims to recognise the diversity of CSR approaches when considering how to facilitate convergence.

http://www.euractiv.com/cgi-bin/cgint.exe/196723-793?204&OIDN=1505440&-tt=cs

Commission report shows that EU law is achieving its main aims
According to a European Commission report published recently, the 1995 Data Protection Directive has broadly achieved its aim of ensuring strong protection for privacy while making it easier for personal data to be moved around the EU. However, late implementation by Member States and differences in the ways the Directive is applied at national level have prevented Europe's economy from getting the full benefit of the Directive. The report proposes a work plan to reduce those differences, based on co-operation among Member States and between Member States and the Commission, followed by a review in 2005 of whether amendments to the Directive are necessary. The report is based on wide consultation, including an international conference and an online survey to which over 10,000 responses were received.

http://europa.eu.int/rapid/start/cgi/guesten.ksh?p_action.gettxt=gt&doc=IP/03/6

Privacy International criticises EP over EU Data Protection Supervisor
The global civil liberties watchdog Privacy International strongly criticised the European Parliament over its decision to recommend the appointment of an "unknown" Spanish magistrate for the influential post of European Data Protection chief. In a secret ballot of the Committee on Citizens' Freedoms and Rights, Justice and Home Affairs of the EP, Joaquín Bayo Delgado was selected as primary candidate for the post of "Data Protection Supervisor" for Europe. Privacy International's Director, Simon Davies, said Joaquín Bayo Delgado was completely unknown to any privacy or data protection advocate in Europe. "To the best of our knowledge he has never written about the subject, nor spoken about it in any public presentation".

http://www.privacyinternational.org/intl_orgs/eu/delgado-release-503.html

Commission set out its objectives for the United Nations World Summit on Information Society
Thee European Commission adopted a Communication on the forthcoming World Summit on Information Society setting out the main objectives for the EU at this Summit. This Summit, the first worldwide event in the field, is under the patronage of the United Nations and will be held in Geneva in December 2003, continuing in Tunis in November 2005.

The European Commission decided to designate EURID as the Registry for the .eu Top Level Domain
The European Commission decided to designate EURID - the European Registry for Internet Domains as the Registry for the dot EU (.eu) Top Level Domain. The .eu is intended to become the distinctive pan-European identification of websites and e-mail addresses, comparable to .org or .com. The three founder members of EURID are currently managing the country codes .be (Belgium), .it (Italy) and .se (Sweden). Two associated members are from acceding countries. EURID has committed to consult stakeholders from the European Internet Community and to ensure contacts with regional and international organisations involved in the Internet.

http://europa.eu.int/rapid/start/cgi/guesten.ksh?p_action.gettxt=gt&doc=IP/03/7

EU heeds labels' complaints on piracy law
A new European Union proposal for harmonizing intellectual property law enforcement across member states has come under criticism from the first parliamentary committee to review it. The committee has suggested that the proposal may need to be modified to better reflect the interests of the music and film industries. The proposal is now under review by the European Parliament's Committee on Legal Affairs and the Internal Market. The Legal Affairs Committee is scheduled to vote on the proposal on Sept. 11th.

http://news.com.com/2100-1027_3-1003578.html

Report on Transparency Directive
A European Commission report COM (2003) 200 gives a favourable assessment of the compulsory procedure under which the Member States give prior notification of draft national regulations governing goods and on-line services. This system, which is currently based on Directive 98/34/EC, has been applied to national regulations on products for nearly 20 years. It was recently extended by Directive 98/48/EC to include Information Society services, and it continues to prove its effectiveness as a tool benefiting the Internal Market and European enterprises. The report clarifies the central role which the notification procedure played between 1999 and 2001 in avoiding the creation of barriers to the free movement of goods and services.

http://europa.eu.int/rapid/start/cgi/guesten.ksh?p_action.gettxt=gt&doc=IP/03/7

Ministers make no Progress on Sales Promotion Legislation
In its latest meeting, the Competitiveness Council failed to come to an agreement on the Sales Promotions Regulation draft, which would harmonise cross-border provision of premium offers and free gifts. EU ministers did not manage to reach a common position but held an exchange of views on the sales promotion Regulation, based on a compromise text by the Greek Presidency. The Council identified the most important remaining problems that will need to be tackled under the Italian Presidency. The Sales Promotion Regulation aims at introducing uniform rules for sales promotion and providing for a high level of consumer protection by doing away with several legal obstacles hindering the Internal Market, due to divergences in national legislation.

EACA and Member News

EACA Euro EFFIES
The pan-European advertising effectiveness awards are being re-launched for 2003. Closing date for entries is 3pm (15h00) on 30 May, 2003. The EACA EURO EFFIES 2003 are open to all European markets and agencies for campaigns which ran between 1 January 2001 and 31 December 2002 in 2 or more European countries. For more information regarding the handling and judging of the entries please check www.euro-effie.com

Children and Advertising

ICC Publishes Compendium of Rules on Advertising to Children
Recently the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) published a "Compendium of ICC rules on children and young people and advertising". The compendium gathers together passages relevant to children from the six self-regulatory ICC codes on marketing and advertising. The compendium aims to highlight the special consideration that children should receive. The compendium also has an introduction, which states the ICC's position on advertising to children. It states "Children have a right to information about the products that interest them. Nonetheless, ICC expects all commercial marketers to acknowledge that children may constitute an audience with a more limited capacity in assessing information in advertising." The compendium is available on the AEF web site : www.aeforum.org

http://www.aeforum.org

Mobile Phone Operators Code on Advertising to Children
On 16 May, Belgian mobile telephone operators Proximus and Mobistar presented a code of conduct for information and game providers who use SMS (short messaging service, text messaging) and MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service). The code aims to ensure that companies which provide information and game providers via SMS and MMS act in a responsible way when advertising their products to children. The code stipulates that information and game providers, using SMS and MMS operating with a contract with Proximus or Mobistar, will have to identify themselves in all advertisements and provide a telephone number for the customer to obtain further details on the service proposed. If the provider does not comply with the code of conduct, the contract between the telephone operator and the information or service provider will be terminated. For more information contact info@adforum.org

IPA publishes Q1 2003 TV Trends Report
The IPA published recently the Q1 2003 TV Trends Report, which shows the decline in ITV1's share, evident in the early part of 2002. The report also reveals that BBC1's share has averaged out only a little below that of last quarter, but it has shown clear growth on a week-by-week basis during the quarter. At the end of this quarter, the growth in the non-terrestrial channels' share has taken them to almost a quarter of all viewing. For more information or to view the Q1 2003 TV Trends Report please click on the link provided below.

http://www.ipa.co.uk/index.cfa?directlink=q12003tvtrends

Privacy laws 'hamper e-government'
A study has found that UK data protection laws are hindering the progress of online government projects. Many public sector organisations are finding it hard to juggle twin demands from existing laws and targets for online services, said a survey by the E-Government Bulletin, a newsletter that specialises in e-government. The survey, which questioned technology managers in both central government and local councils, also found that many departments were finding it was impossible to juggle various pieces of legislation without them conflicting with each other.

Puttnam warns that Ofcom could sink into black hole
Lord Puttnam warned the UK government that it was "facing a black hole at the centre of the regulatory universe" unless it made special provisions for the funding of new media and telecoms super-regulator Ofcom. The Labour peer, who chaired the joint scrutiny committee looking into the communications bill, issued the warning as the House of Lords continued to debate amendments to the legislation.

http://media.guardian.co.uk/broadcast/story/0,7493,957124,00.html

New Agencies join AACC
After its last meeting, the administrative council of AACC announced the entry of four new agencies in the AACC. POLYEDRE, IN FOLIO, GRRREY ! INTERACTIVE, and ART & STRATEGIE are the new member agencies of AACC.

New Zealand Announces its EFFIE
The New Zealand CAANZ announced recently its EFFIE 2003 Call for Entries online at http://www.caanz.co.nz . CAANZ is one of the partners in the International EFFIE Award program. The New Zealand EFFIE Awards has an international category that allows overseas agencies to enter campaigns created for use in their own country. Information on this category can be found on our website: http://www.caanz.co.nz

http://www.caanz.co.nz

Norwegian Associations merge in order to Strengthen Creative Focus
The two former organisations Norwegian Association of Advertising Agencies and Creative Forum have merged their operations in order to strengthen the Norwegian agencies' creative focus. The new organisation's first General Assembly has been organised and the association has been running since the turn of the year. The merged association has been named Association for Creative, Commercial Communication. The association's vision is to create the world's leading environment for creative, commercial communication. The Board consists of representatives from the leading Norwegian agencies.

http://www.kreativtforum.no

Events

EASA Road show
The third EASA Road show event will be taking place in Paris on 23 June. If you would like further information or to attend this Road show, please contact Sara at communications@easa-alliance.org or +32 2213 4184.

EEJ-NET towards a European extra-judicial Network
A conference will take place on 10 and 11 June 2003 in Brussels to fully evaluate the performance of the EEJ-Net and look at ways of improving consumer assistance in the future including promoting wider use of alternative dispute resolution and links with third countries.

5th Anniversary TBLI Conference
Brooklyn Bridge is celebrating its 5th anniversary of the TBLI Conference! The event will take place in Amsterdam, at the Beurs van Berlage, on the 6th and 7th of November 2003. What started in 1999 as a small event has grown into the world's largest conference on SRI (Socially Responsible Investing) and sustainable investment. The conference will have over 80 speakers presenting on subjects such as: Corporate Governance, Environmental Credit Risk Assessment, SRI Performance, OECD Guidelines, and Climate Change among other things. EACA members are offered a 10% discount on registration. To see the program or register, click https://www.tbli.org/index.php?referer_code=eaca For more information or to order the brochure, e-mail gabrielle@tbli.org or call 31 (0) 20 4286752.