Government Organs

The Corporation structures itself into two organs: the Governing Council and its President; and the Advisory Council for Content and Programmes.

Governing Council

The Governing Council is the highest organ of government and administration of the CCMA. It is made up of seven members, chosen from a list of candidates with the relevant professional merits. The list is forwarded to the Catalan Broadcasting Authority (Consell de l'Audiovisual de Catalunya, CAC) by Parliament. The CAC then elaborates a report concerning the suitability of those candidates, which is returned to Parliament. The Councillors are finally elected by a two-thirds majority of the Chamber. If a majority of two thirds is not reached in the first vote, they will be elected by absolute majority in a second vote.

The Council holds at least four ordinary meetings a month, as well as in urgent cases at the discretion of the President, or when a third of its members request it. The agreements of the Council are adopted by a majority of its members, except in those cases in which the Law of the CCMA requires a qualified majority of two thirds. The Governing Council may create a Vice Presidency, which will carry out the delegated functions that the President may consider fitting.

The term of office of the members of the Council is of six years. The following are some of their competencies, as described in Article 11 of the Law of the CCMA: to lay down the directives so that the programming fulfils the public service mission entrusted to the Corporation, in accordance with the programme contract, and to approve the preliminary budget, the proposal of the programme contract, the plan of activities, the annual report, the directives about the broadcasting of advertising, the selection of staff, the salary scale for personnel, and the organisation chart, both of the Corporation and of their companies, respecting equality criteria between men and women.

The President

The President of the Council represents the CCMA in all sorts of public events before Parliament, before the Government, and before the representative institutions. He is in charge of the ordinary executive management of the Corporation and ensures the execution of the resolutions taken.

Among other functions, the President convene and presides the sessions of the Council and, by means of his or her casting vote, settles any ties in voting sessions. He or she is answerable to the questions put him or her by the Parliamentary Control Committee; and asks the Advisory Council for Content and Programmes for the mandatory reports, and for those that he or she may consider relevant to ask of it.

The President acts as the Corporation's contracting body, authorises payments and expenses, and together with the other members of the Council elaborates the proposal of the programme contract. He or she also guarantees that programmes adapt to the guidelines approved by the Council; appoints and dismisses the management staff; suggests personnel distribution, the organisational chart and the scales of retribution, both of the Corporation and of its subsidiary companies. The elaboration of annual report, work plan and of the group's action plans are also functions of the President, among others.

The Advisory Council for Content and Programmes

It is the CCMA's advisory body for the matters of programming and content. It assists the Governing Council and the President for the definition and evaluation of the programming policies and strategies of the Corporation's various media and services.

It is made up of sixteen members, chosen by Parliament, by a two-thirds majority, among people of recognised professional prestige who represent the plurality of Catalan society. At least, the following professional sectors have to be represented in it: education; civil, cultural and users' associations; and the staff of the CCMA. The term of office of its members must be renewed every four years.

Funding

The budget of the CCMA must conform to the one specified in the Budget Law, the Law of Public Funding of Catalonia, and to the specifications laid down by the actual Law of the CCMA. The budget will be elaborated and managed in accordance with the principles of budget balance. Once forwarded to the Catalan Government, the preliminary budget of the Corporation and its subsidiary companies will be integrated into the Bill of Budgets of the Generalitat de Catalunya.

The need to define explicitly the CCMA's function as one of public service, together with its economic and financial situation, led the Catalan Parliament to consider it important to guarantee a framework of stable funding and of economic reorganisation for the CCMA media based on a multiyear programme contract that would outline the objectives.

The funding of the Entity and of its subsidiaries is part of the Generalitat's General Budget, through contributions or credits, and through the income and yield of its activities. Thus, its subsidiary companies can co-fund themselves through the marketing of their products and, in a limited way, through the participation in the advertising market. The CCMA's budget and financial management, as well as that of its subsidiary companies, is periodically subjected to parliamentary control systems.