EU: EP Committee Opinions On GPCC

The EP Environment Committee has debated a draft opinion on the Green Paper on Commercial Communications (GPCC), which supports the liberalising trend set out in the Green Paper, and endorses the Commission’s approach to policy and the regulation of advertising.The Culture Committee of the European Parliament has also given its draft opinion on the Green Paper, drawn up by Aldo Arroni. It focuses on the issue of cross-border sponsorship and the need to remove regulatory and fiscal obstacles, to allow for more cross-border sponsorship activities, which contribute to the financing of cultural and sporting events. Arroni’s draft opinion is broadly supportive of the Green Paper: it stresses the need to prevent obstacles to the genuine cross-border possibilities of sponsorship and financial patronage. Last month, the Legal Affairs Committee surprised its own draftsman by narrowly passing an amendment which flatly opposes the country of origin principle (see AIG-Notices 7).