The European Regulators Group for Audiovisual Media Services (ERGA) brings together not only the leaders or high-level representatives of these regulatory bodies, but also the experts from these authorities, to advise the Commission on the implementation of the EU’s AVMSD.
CBR belongs to one of the most active ERGA members (in most of the work streams) with several major activities already undertaken so far (organising workshops, chairing of work streams, preparation of publications etc.). This is true also for the activities of CBR in the governing structures of ERGA. From 2017 until July 2018 Mr Luboš Kukliš (Chief Executive of CBR) served as the ERGA Vice-chair and in August 2018 he has been elected as ERGA chair, and should serve in that function until the end of 2019. Mr Kuklis is chairing ERGA in the key period for this organisation with the recent adoption of the revised Audiovisual Media Services Directive and its current implementation into the national legislation in the EU member states. The revised AVMSD also marks a formal establishment and strengthening of the competencies of ERGA and its position as an advisory body to the European Commission.
The role of the ERGA Bord is the day to day running of the ERGA. It is composed of the chair (currently the chief executive of the CBR Ľuboš Kukliš) and two vice-chairs of ERGA (currently Mr Tobias Schmid - Commissioner for European Affairs of the German regulator DLM and Mr Karim Ibourki - Chairman of the French-speaking Belgian regulator CSA).
The chair of ERGA is also presiding over the ERGA Plenary meetings that gather the high-level representatives of all of the member and observer national regulatory authorities. They usually take place two times a year and adopt the work programmes, deliverables and take any strategic decisions of ERGA. In 2019 one of the plenary meetings is taking place historically for the first time in Bratislava between 20th - 21st June 2019. This meeting will bring to Bratislava not only all the highest representatives of the national regulatory authorities, but also the Commissionaire for Digital Economy and Society Ms Mariya Gabriel.
The role of the ERGA chair (and the ERGA board) is not only limited to the ERGA board level and plenary meetings. The presidency is also presiding over the Contact Network meetings whitch role goes beyond just preparing the plenary meetings and is composed of the delegated representatives of the authorities. The ERGA chair also represents ERGA externally at major events taking place all over Europe and beyond. These are occasions for not only presenting the work of ERGA but also to join worldwide discusions on current topics in the audiovisual field.
