At a special session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) in Belgrade, EBU Director General Ingrid Deltenre urged politicians to consider the impact of recent funding decisions on Europe's public service media.

As part of a panel looking at audiovisual media policy, Ms Deltenre, in front of Serbian Minister of Culture Ivan Tasovac, stressed that the economic and financial sustainability of public broadcasters in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia were put in danger by recent political decisions.

The Serbian government's announcement of a possible cancellation of the licence fee lead to an immediate drop in household contributions, without the decision even being formalised. License fee collections dropped to a historical new low in 2013, with under 50% of the total dues paid.

Ms Deltenre explained that "in some countries, politicians take public service media for granted and act as if they own them. And sometimes they believe that by cutting back on public service media they can solve the problems of the commercial sector."

She pointed out that "most European countries are simply too small to support a vibrant national TV market. Cutting back PSM to redress the balance however is not the solution. All this creates is a lot of bitsy TV broadcasters that are too small to compete with the big international players. Audiences are the real losers, short-changed of good quality, locally produced content."

The meeting, organised by the media subcommittee of PACE in partnership with the Culture Committee of the Serbian Parliament, took place 6 November, on the eve of the Council of Europe's Ministerial Conference dedicated to freedom of expression and information.

It was held in Serbia's parliamentary building, in the same room where protestors demanded the resignation of former President Slobodan Milošević's in 2000.

The panel also dedicated a minute of silence in honour of Aleksandar Tijanic, former Director General of EBU's Serbian Member RTS, who died suddenly a week before the Belgrade event.

More information on EBU's efforts in support of sustainable public service media is available here.