The European Commissioner for Enlargement and Neighbourhood Policy, Štefan Füle, said the EU would focus on public service broadcasting as the "second pillar" of its future approach to countries aspiring to join the European Union.

Mr Füle referred appreciatively to activities conducted by the EBU under a Memorandum of Understanding signed by him and EBU President Jean-Paul Philippot last July to strengthen public service media in EU accession countries. He also paid tribute to "very good cooperation" with the EBU in the eastern and southern Neighbourhood Countries of the EU.

The Commissioner was speaking in the concluding session of the second Speak Up conference devoted to Freedom of Expression and Media in the Western Balkans and Turkey. The conference, organised by the EU Commission's Directorate-General for Enlargement on 20 June, drew 450 delegates, half of them journalists. Recent events in Turkey, and the large number of journalists jailed in that country, figured heavily during the day's discussions.

Asked about how the Commission planned to address those accession countries yet to start negotiations on EU entry, Mr Fule listed three questions he would tackle as priorities in the light of the day's conference: media freedom, public service broadcasting as the "second pillar of a comprehensive approach" and visa liberalisation.

Earlier in the one-day conference, EBU Media Director Annika Nyberg-Frankenhaeuser chaired a session entitled "New Media and New Journalism".

The full version of European Commissioner Štefan Füle's opening speech can be found here.