53 Members of the EU Parliament urge the European Commission to defend cultural sovereignty against U.S. pressure

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Fifty-three Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) led by French Socialist Emma Rafowicz have sent a letter to President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, Executive Vice-President for Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy Henna Virkkunen and Commissioner for Intergenerational Fairness, Youth, Culture and Sport Glenn Micallef.

This initiative follows the publication of a memorandum signed by U.S. President Donald Trump on 21 February, which warned the European Union of potential trade reprisals in response to the enforcement of various European regulations on American tech giants, particularly the Digital Services Act (DSA) and the Digital Markets Act (DMA). It also referred to the investment obligations introduced by the AVMS Directive:

“Additional foreign legal regimes […] require American streaming services to fund local productions […] These measures violate American sovereignty and offshore American jobs, limit American companies’ global competitiveness, and increase American operational costs while exposing our sensitive information to potentially hostile foreign regulators.”

MEPs from 13 EU Member States and belonging to five political groups, spanning from The Left to the European People’s Party, urged the European Commission to take a stand defending the AVMS Directive and to formulate a cultural strategy in response to the US administration:

“Dismantling the AVMS Directive would mark the end of Europe’s conquest of its  cultural sovereignty and that of its member states. It would be a fatal blow to national ecosystems that favor independent production, and hence to the cultural diversity recognized by the 2005 UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions.”

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