We are on the verge of a major change in the media sector. The draft audiovisual law, which is due to be debated in the French parliament on Wednesday, 26 February, will modernise the French audiovisual sector and make it more ambitious

Digital, regulation, gender equality, protection of groups and support for creativity are among the essential themes at the heart of this reform.

As the British have just left us, the forthcoming law is a unique opportunity to seize an issue too often left in the shadows: Europe. Following the 2019 European elections with record turnout, a new executive has been put in place. In Brussels and Strasbourg, the Commission and Parliament have decided to act together on the issues that we, as citizens, care about: climate, protection, digital.

This year 2020 will also see the Conference for the Future of Europe, an idea that France has carried forward and that the EU has taken up. The objective? To make the European project more democratic. The method? Involving citizens’ agoras in the debate on the direction the EU should take after Brexit. This initiative is an opportunity. But it is only likely to be effective if the media play their full role, both in providing quality information and in stimulating an in-depth debate on Europe.

We therefore call, through this op-ed piece, for a better inclusion of European issues in the French media – starting with public broadcasting, whose public service remit honours and obliges it

European citizenship is already a legal and democratic reality: it is time to make it an informative reality. European decisions are taken by the European Parliament, by our national ministers meeting in the Council. EU guidelines are decided by our Heads of State and Government. European policies are conducted by a Commission headed by Frenchman Thierry Breton and staffed by several thousand of our compatriots. Let’s put the EU on TV: Europe is our business.

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