The Media Board concludes its inaugural year and adopts key 2025 deliverables at the Barcelona Plenary

The fourth plenary session of the European Board for Media Services (the “Media Board”), held in Barcelona on 10 December 2025, marked a key milestone in ensuring a consistent and effective application of EU media legislation. Under the chairmanship of Carlos Aguilar (CNMC, Spain), the Board adopted core reports to support the implementation of the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA) and the Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD), initiated the process of examination of its first requests for opinions and appointed its Steering Group for 2026. Renate Nikolay, Deputy Director-General for Communications, Networks, Content and Technology of the European Commission ( DG CNECT) attended the meeting and provided a keynote speech on the latest developments on Eu policies relevant to the Media Board.

The adopted reports address priority areas for audiovisual media regulation, including the protection of minors, influencers and European works. The Media Board also debated its forthcoming contribution to the Commission’s ongoing consultation on the AVMSD. Finally, the Board adopted its list of criteria in accordance with Article 17.4 EMFA, an important milestone in the European Democracy Shield protecting the EU information space from rogue non-EU media services. The Board also approved the database of media representatives for the consultation mechanism regarding matters beyond the audiovisual sector.

Carlos Aguilar, Chair of the Media Board 2025, stated:

“2025 marked the Media Board’s inaugural year of operations, laying the groundwork with robust governance structures and advancing preparations for the implementation of the EMFA and the Audiovisual Media Services Directive. We remain committed to fostering a free, pluralistic, trusted and competitive media ecosystem in the EU.”

A strengthened governance framework for emerging challenges

Building on this foundation, the Media Board has begun applying key provisions of the EMFA and is now assessing its first requests for opinions on media market concentrations and on national measures that may affect media pluralism and editorial independence in the internal market.

Considering the key importance of the AVMSD, the Board also closely follows the ex-post evaluation of the AVSMD and is currently finalizing its contribution to the Commission’s Call for evidence, expected to be adopted and published before the end of the year.

At the same time, the Media Board has identified several challenges that may hinder the effective implementation of the EMFA. In particular, the need for national regulatory authorities to be equipped with the necessary competences, independence and resources to fulfill new tasks both at national and EU level. Also, given the importance of the online environment for media, the Board urges very large online platforms to fully implement the measures provided for in Article 18 EMFA to protect media freedom and pluralism online.

In this context, the Media Board calls on Member States to accelerate the adaptation of their national frameworks and to incorporate EMFA to ensure timely, coherent and effective application of the Regulation across the Union.

New leadership to guide the Media Board in 2026

The Plenary appointed Amma Asante (CvdM, Netherlands) as Chair for 2026 and Martin Ajdari (Arcom, France) as Vice-Chair. Aoife MacEvilly (CnaM, Ireland), Stanislav Matejka (CMS, Slovakia), Giacomo Lasorella (Agcom, Italy), and Karim Ibourki (CSA, Belgium) in their capacity as leaders of the 2026 Working Groups, will complete the Steering Group along with the three additional members elected at the Plenary: Jan-Olof Lind (Memy, Sweden), Tobias Schmid (DLM, Germany) and Carlos Aguilar (CNMC, Spain).

Amma Asante, appointed Chair of the Media Board for 2026 stated: “We are honored to have been elected as Chair. I want to acknowledge Carlos Aguilar and his entire CNMC team from Spain. We are fortunate to build on the solid foundation their presidency has established. In 2026, important things are coming our way, such as the evaluation of the AVMSD. We strive to firmly position the Media Board as a partner for strategic discussion: an influential, independent, and reliable player in the European media landscape. Actively contributing to public debate: we all do this in the interest of the public, because of the importance of reliable, accessible, diverse and safe media offerings.”