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The proposed new Audiovisual Media Services Directive: Key Features

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Lorna Woods, Professor of Media Law, University of Essex After a draft was leaked last week, the Commission proposal to revise the Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD) is now out.  Once again we see the Commission proposing the roll-out rather than the roll-back of regulation in the face of sector change.  The following provides an overview of some of the issues. The first change is an extension of material scope.  The Commission explains in its Memo/16/1895 that a ‘limited extension’ will occur as the new proposal applies to ‘video-sharing platforms’, such as YouTube.  “Video-sharing platform services” are defined in new Article 1(aa) AVMSD (Art. 1(1)(b) of the proposal): ‘… a service, as defined by Articles 56 and 57 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, which meets the following requirements: (i)                   the service co...
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EU law and the ECHR: the Bosphorus presumption is still alive and kicking - the case of Avotiņš v. Latvia

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Stian Øby Johansen, PhD fellow at the University of Oslo Faculty of Law* Yesterday, 23 May 2016, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) delivered its  judgment in the case of Avotiņš v. Latvia . This seems to be the ECtHR’s first detailed appraisal of the so-called  Bosphorus presumption (the rule on the relationship between EU law and the ECHR) after the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in  Opinion 2/13  rejected a draft agreement providing for the accession of the EU to the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR). It also provides a first glimpse of how the ECtHR views the EU law principle of mutual trust, which has become particularly dear to the CJEU over the last couple of years. THE BOSPHORUS PRESUMPTION AND OPINION 2/13 For the uninitiated: the Bosphorus presumption refers to a doctrine in the case-law of the ECtHR that goes back to  the 2005 judgment in Bosphorus Hava Yolları ...
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The Orbanisation of EU asylum law: the latest EU asylum proposals

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Steve Peers There have been a number of EU proposals to deal with the perceived ‘refugee crisis’ in Europe over the last year. The latest batch, issued this week, are perhaps the most significant to date. They concern three related issues: visas (notably a short-term Schengen visa waiver for Turkish nationals); Schengen (partly suspending the open borders rules for six months); and asylum (changing the Dublin system on responsibility for asylum seekers, and creating a new EU asylum agency). Further proposals on legal migration and other EU asylum laws are coming in the months ahead. Essentially, these proposals amount to the ‘Orbanisation’ of EU asylum law. They copy and entrench across the EU the key elements of the Hungarian government’s policy, which was initially criticized: refusing essentially all asylum-seekers at the external border and treating them as harshly as possible so as to maintain the Schengen open borders system.  Background The surge in th...
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