EU offers France compromise on US free trade talks: source

(BRUSSELS) - The European Commission is offering France and any other reluctant EU member an unprecedented right to review negotiations involving cultural and audiovisual issues during free trade talks with the United States, an EU source said Thursday.

The upcoming EU-US trade negotiations promise to be difficult and France has been insisting that cultural products, which are protected in the European Union, are a no-go area.

"Normally, the Commission would negotiate a free trade accord on behalf of the 27 member states," said a source close to the matter who asked not to be named.

"There is always a constant dialogue with member states," the source said, but now the Commission wanted to "go the extra mile" to get France on board and agree a negotiating mandate at an EU trade ministers' meeting Friday.

Accordingly, the Commission proposed that member states have a right of review and approval when cultural issues, and specifically the audiovisual sector, come up in the US talks.

This is a "clear sign of flexibility ... it has never been done before," the source said, adding: "Member states will have to give a green light."

French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault told parliament earlier this week that Paris will oppose the opening of the negotiations for what would be the world's biggest free trade deal if culture and the cultural industries "are not protected, are not excluded" from the talks.

Paris jealously guards what is known as "the cultural exception", requiring French TV to air at least 40-percent of domestically produced content, and another 20 percent coming from Europe, before US TV soap operas can even get a look in.

Cinema-goers pay a levy on each ticket to help fund the French film industry.