BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Commission is to scrap a bid to define common rules on which national legislation should apply in cross-border media defamation cases, the EU's top justice official said on Tuesday.
European Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini told EU lawmakers that he would ask the EU executive to drop the plan on Wednesday because of differences among the bloc's 25 member states.
At present no common rules apply when more than one country is involved, meaning plaintiffs often seek to apply the national legislation which they believe will offer them the greatest chance of success or of big compensation pay-outs.
Jurisdictions based on English law are often seen as more stringent on defamation and typically offer greater damages.
But the European Federation of Journalists said many media groups would nonetheless be relieved by the move to scrap the proposal, which it feared could require them to know and adhere to all of the 25 EU member states' laws.
"It would be impossible for a journalist to make sure his article is in conformity with privacy laws of all European states," said the Federation's Pamela Moriniere.
The European Publishers' Council and the European Newspaper Publishers' Association also said the proposals were unacceptable for journalists.
The EU executive proposed in 2003 that the law of the country where the damage from defamation had arisen should be applied. Some member states suggested it should be the law of the country where the complaint was made.
Moriniere said a better solution would have been that put forward by the European Parliament last July, according to which the applicable law would be that of the country to which the article or broadcast was mainly directed.
"This gave legal certainty. All that was put forward as an alternative by member states was very bad," she said.
