On 2 February, the European Parliament plenary adopted its report on the transparency and targeting of political advertising. This regulation aims to introduce a common framework for sponsored political advertising, that will apply both online and offline. The EBU supports the goals of this proposal to fight against disinformation and interference in democratic processes.

The challenge for public service media was to ensure that political advertising should not be confused with reporting on political campaigns to inform voters.

The Parliament's vote today significantly improves the Commission's proposal and ensures that editorial content, unless paid for by third-party, is exempt from the scope of the regulation. In this way, the Parliament’s report ensures that media freedom is respected.

Next steps:

The start of the trilogue negotiations, where both the Parliament and the Council significantly improved the Commission’s proposal.

These improvements include:

• Both texts exclude editorial content from the scope of the regulation and the definition of political advertising
• The Council general approach improves the definition of political advertising by making sure it is understood as messages designed to influence voters' choice – the European Parliament’s report unfortunately does not reflect this point
• Recitals in both texts make clear that national rules on the content and distribution of political advertisements during electoral periods are not affected
• In both versions, journalists are being granted access to the database - no accreditation needed
• Regarding the transparency requirements, the Council lessens the burden on political advertising publishers by requiring them to make only “reasonable efforts” to ensure that the information is complete and accurate. Both texts highlight the importance to consider the “specificities of the medium” and allow the use of technical means such as QR codes to provide the information requested.