EU funding for the Egyptian satellite provider Nilesat despite broadcasting al-Manar

7.4.2008

ORAL QUESTION H-0246/08
for Question Time at the part-session in April 2008
pursuant to Rule 109 of the Rules of Procedure
by Alexander Alvaro
to the Commission

According to the website of the European neighbourhood policy, the European Union will provide Egypt with EUR 558 million over the next four years.

 

Is the Commission aware that this funding is being used in part to finance projects indirectly or directly connected to the Egyptian satellite provider Nilesat? If so, does the Commission consider such financing to be justified, particularly in view of the fact that Nilesat broadcasts the radical Islamist television station ‘al-Manar’, which, according to Viviane Reding, Commissioner for the Information Society and the Media, is in breach of the ‘Television without Frontiers’ Directive (97/36/EC[1]) (answer of 17 May 2005 to Written Question E‑0909/05)?

 

 

Tabled: 07.04.2008

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• [1]  OJ L 202, 30.7.1997, p. 60.