AVMSD REFIT OR REFORM? Audio Visual Media Services In The Digital Era

Lorena Boix Alonso is the Head of Unit for Audio-visual and Media Services Policy Unit, Directorate General for Communications Networks Content and Technology since July 2012. Formerly, she was Deputy Head of Cabinet of Vice President Neelie Kroes, European Commissioner for the Digital Agenda. During Ms Kroes' mandate as Commissioner for Competition, Lorena Boix Alonso commenced in October 2004 as a member of her Cabinet and became Deputy Head of Cabinet in May 2008. She holds a Master of Laws, with a focus on Antitrust Law and Intellectual Property, from the Harvard Law School. She graduated in Law from the University of Valencia (Spain) and then obtained a Licence Spéciale en Droit Européen from the Université Libre de Bruxelles. She joined the European Commission Directorate-General for Competition in 2003. Prior to that, she has worked for Judge Rafael García Valdecasas, at the European Court of Justice, as well as Deputy Director and Legal Coordinator of the IPR-Helpdesk Project and in private practice in Brussels.

Positions in Parliament:

Maja Cappello joined the European Audiovisual Observatory in Strasbourg as Head of the Department for Legal Information in 2014. Set up in December 1992, the Observatory's mission is to gather and diffuse information on the audiovisual industry in Europe. The Observatory operates within the legal framework of the Council of Europe as a European public service body comprised of 41 member states and the EU, represented by the European Commission. Before joining the Observatory, Maja worked for the Italian regulator AGCOM from 1998 and was Head of AGCOM’s Digital Rights Unit of the Media Services Directorate. She was also Vice President of EPRA (European Platform of Regulatory Authorities) from 2011 to 2014. Italian-Norwegian mother tongue, Maja deals with audiovisual regulatory issues at European level, both contributing to international conferences and committees, and participating as expert in EU and Council of Europe cooperation projects. She is author of articles and speeches in the areas of audiovisual media services, media pluralism, copyright and consumer protection and holds an LLM in EU law and a PhD in European social law after graduating in Law in 1994. She has been lecturing in Media law at University level (Bachelor, Master and PhD) since 2001.

After graduating in law in 1991 with a thesis on the so called Mammì Law, Stefano Ciullo devoted his career to the in-depth analysis and the professional study of the electronic communications and the audiovisual services both from a legal and an institutional point of view. Speaking of which, he worked first in a consulting firm in Brussels (1992-1993), then in American law firms: from 1994 to 1998, he was at Baker & McKenzie, where he dedicated himself to the topic of telecoms liberalization in Italy; from 1999 to 2005, he worked in the Rome and Washington offices of Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton, where he was involved in several antitrust and regulatory dossiers relating to the telecommunications markets and pay-TV. In 2005, he moved to Sky Italy Srl, where he was first Head of Regulatory Affairs and later Head of the Institutional Affairs. At the moment, Stefano Ciullo is Director of European & International Affairs, in the same company. He holds an LL.M. from the New York University School of Law (1998), and he not only authors publications on electronic communications, but also diligently participates to policy discussions on the matter.

Stefano is the President of I-Com , which he founded in 2005, and he teaches political economy and economic policy at Roma Tre University. Previously, he directed the Observatory on Energy Policy of the Einaudi Foundation. He is an expert member of the Technical Secretariat for the Protection of Nature at the Ministry of the Environment, of the Task Force on investment in the electricity sector of Eurelectric. He is the Scientific Director of the Association La Scossa, founded in 2011, and he is member of the board of the Brussels-based European Foundation EYPROM. He is Member of the Scientific Board of several institutions and initiatives, and the author and editor of numerous publications on economic subjects, particularly with regard to policy and regulation of the energy market and infrastructural services and the governance of the institutions. He conducted studies and consultancy assignments for Italian and international public institutions, including the Senate of the Republic, the Department for EU policies, the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and the OECD, and also leading Italian and foreign companies and non-profit organisations. He holds a Master's degree in economics at the CORIPE Piedmont and a Master of Arts in Economics at the George Mason University (USA).

Cécile Despringre is the Executive Director of the SAA, the European organisation of collective management organisations for audiovisual authors established in 2010. Its 29 members in 22 countries manage rights for over 120,000 film, television and multimedia European screenwriters and directors. The organisation’s objectives are to defend and strengthen the economic and moral rights of audiovisual authors; to secure fair remuneration for audiovisual authors for every use of their works; to develop, promote and facilitate the management of rights by member societies. Cécile Despringre studied International and European law at the University of Paris I and hold a Master degree in International Economic Law. After a traineeship at the Delegation of the European Commission to International Organisations in Geneva, she became the European Affairs Officer of SACD (French and Belgium society for dramatic authors) in 1997. In 2001, she became Deputy Director for European Affairs and Trade Negotiations of SACD. In 2006, she joined FERA, the European network of film and TV directors’ organisations as their CEO. In 2009, Cécile Despringre was contacted by audiovisual authors’ collective management organisations to set up a new European organisation to represent them with European institutions: the SAA.

Damir started his career in public sector, in the Ministry of Communication, Post and Telecom Administration in Croatia, where he started in 1998, continuing in National Regulatory Authority in telecommunications, as advisor in telecommunications and radiocommunications as well as in licencing department. Afterwards between 2000 and 2008, he started successful career in private telecommunications operators, subsidiaries of Deutsche Telekom and Telekom Austria in Croatia, working on various positions within network planning department, public and regulatory affairs as well as in wholesale business activities, as head of those departments. In 2008, Damir joined Telekom Austria Representative Office in Bruxelles, taking care for spectrum issues, environment, health and m-commerce issues on behalf of the Group, together with activities related to providing support to South-East Europe operations in Croatia, Macedonia and Serbia, internally and towards European institutions. In 2010 Damir became Director Public Affairs of DIGITALEUROPE, the European Industry Association that is the voice of the Information and Communications Technology and Consumer Electronics industries in Europe, which he joins from his private consultancy Intelligent Consulting, where he provided support both to governmental and private sector in telecom industry on various regulatory issues, as well as provide expert information and advice on issues related on EU legislation, institution and political process. In January 2012, Damir has joined newly formed Samsung EU Affairs office in Bruxelles, as EU Technology and Regulatory Policy manager, responsible for issues related to digital economy and product and technology. As of January 2016, Damir re-joined DIGITALEUROPE as Director for Digital Economy.

Nicola Frank joined the European Broadcasting Union in 1998. In January 2009 she became Head of European Affairs, in charge of the EBU Brussels office.

Carolina Lorenzon is responsible for International Affairs at Mediaset and reports to the Board on regulatory issues, ranging from spectrum to content management and IPR protection. She is a member of the Board of ACT (Association of Commercial Televisions in Europe). Prior to joining Mediaset, after a brief stint at the World Bank’s Paris Office and at Benetton’s US headquarters in New York City, she worked on the Green Paper on the liberalization of satellite communications during a traineeship at the European Commission. She holds a BA in Communication / International Affairs (senior thesis on Direct Broadcasting Satellites for infrastructure development in Least Developed Countries) and MA in Global Economics and Public Policy.

David Martin is a Senior Legal Officer at BEUC, the European Consumer Organisation. BEUC represents 42 independent national consumer associations from 31 European countries. The primary task of BEUC is to act as a strong consumer voice in Brussels and to try to ensure that consumer interests are given their proper weight in the development of all EU policies.

Marco Pancini was born in Rome in May 1972. After his studies in Law, Marcostarted his professional career as part of the start-up project of iBazar, the first on line auction web site in Europe, and then he joined eBay, when iBazar was acquired. From 2002 to 2007 Marco was Head of legal and Trust and Safety at eBay.it, the Italian subsidiary of the world biggest online marketplace. On July 2007 he joined the Google team as European policy counsel in charge of government relationship for the Italian market, representing Google in important international meetings as the Internet Governance Forum of United Nations. From February 2011 Marco is member of the Google policy team in Brussels, where his leading the team dealing with the EU Commission and Council.

Born on July 5th, 1962

Positions in Parliament:

Positions in Parliament:

Bruno is an expert in the field of media and cultural economics. He is Professor of Economics and cinema and television organization, at Sapienza University of Rome. He led strategic studies and market analyses at the most qualified industry research institutes, including IsICult, Isimm and Rosselli Foundation. In this Foundation, he was first senior analyst and then coordinator of the Institute of Media Economics. He carried out research and consultancy for associations (Anica, Agis, Anec, Anem, Fice, Apt), Ministries (Mibact – Dg Cinema and Entertainment Centre where for 3 years he edited the report to Parliament on the use of the single fund for the show business), public authorities (Rai, Siae, Unitelma, Formez, regional Corecom ) and private companies (Mediaset, Sky). He was appointed member of the Board of Directors of Eti (Italian Theatrical Agency) with responsibility for audiovisual and new media. He published books, articles and papers on the audiovisual market, digital media and live entertainment. From 2010 he is the didactic director of AS.For Cinema – bilateral institution for professional training composed of ANICA and industry unions.