asked the Minister for Industry, Commerce and Energy the EEC directives or proposed directives, if any, that will affect concentrations of press ownership in Ireland.
Written Answers. - Press Ownership.
109.
There is a draft EEC regulation on the control of concentrations between undertakings including newspaper undertakings. The regulation, when adopted, will require undertakings to notify the EEC Commission of proposed mergers and will empower the Commission to investigate and prohibit these if they are considered to be incompatible with the common market. The regulation would apply, however, only where the turnover of the proposed aggregation in particular commodities would account for 20 per cent of the total turnover of those commodities in the European Economic Community, and as this condition is unlikely to be met by any newspaper grouping it seems improbable that the regulation would have a practical effect in relation to press ownership.