Sweden, whose six-month presidency expires in July, has used its time to push for a wider consensus on a ban on children's advertising to reflect the one that has long been in place in Sweden.
In Sweden, it has been illegal to aim television advertising at children under the age of 12 since 1991 and the country has long been expected to use its EU presidency to encourage the other 14 members to follow suit.
The push by Sweden could not have come at a more crucial time for advertisers. The law that governs such restrictions -- the 1989 Television Without Frontiers Directive, last revised in 1997 -- is due to be reviewed at the end of 2002.
While an outright ban is unlikely, advertisers are concerned about a rising number of tough limited bans. The EU is duty bound to hold hearings on the directive, which outlaws all advertising within any children's television programme running for 30 or fewer minutes. However, it is expected some restrictions may be made, including some commercials directed at small children, partial bans covering ads appearing within five minutes of a children's television show and ads for junk food.
Many EU members already employ their own advertising restrictions -- including three of the four countries that will each hold the presidency for six-month stretches over the next two years -- and will set the agenda for meetings of EU cultural ministers and summits of heads of state.
Belgium, which takes over the EU presidency in July, bans any advertising within five minutes of a Dutch-language children's TV programme. Denmark has convinced domestic broadcasters to stick to the five-minute rule and Greece prohibits commercials for toy guns, tanks or other war instruments and bans all other toy ads between 7am and 10pm.
However, advertisers and broadcasters are preparing to fight moves to tighten current restrictions. Simon Pitts, European affairs manager for ITV, said, "Talk, and talk of a ban, and then settle for restrictions to TV advertising when it comes to the review of the directive -- that appears to be the Swedish tactic."
Cindy Rose, a Brussels-based lobbyist for Walt Disney, said, "A ban on children's advertising would be catastrophic for Europe's television production community. They rely on advertising revenues to fund high-quality children's programming."