Brussels, 24/04/2012 (Agence Europe) - In a press release, several European audiovisual and cinema organisations (Europa Distribution, Europa International, Europa Cinémas and l'ARP) have given their support to the European Commission proposal to increase the multiannual budget for the new programme for culture and creative content “Europe Creative”, promoted by European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Youth and Multilingualism Androulla Vassiliou. They fear, on the other hand, the potential watering down of the MEDIA programme if it is reorientated towards new fields of action or merged with other programmes. Vassiliou has responded that she warmly welcomes this message from senior representatives from the European audiovisual and cinema industry and explained: “The MEDIA programme is a pillar of diversity, choice, competitiveness and employment in the cinema industry and hopefully that can continue.”
Industry professionals have underlined the importance of the MEDIA programme and more specifically the necessity for distribution and exhibition to remain at the heart of the future MEDIA programme. The press release states that the programme has enabled a strong and influential cinema industry to grow in Europe, thanks to financial support from the European audiovisual sector. Although professionals believe that the future MEDIA programme needs to adapt to the new realities of digital transition, leading to digitisation of European cinema screens and online distribution of audiovisual works, they say that it “must not enter into new fields at the cost of potentially weakening what it has proven a great instrument for”. The lack of support to distribution could additionally reduce the circulation of European works by more than half and probably result in the disappearance of European independent companies, to the advantage of US companies. Industry professionals have concluded that the future MEDIA programme should: (1) take into account the specificity of the audiovisual sector. It is therefore not to be merged with other programmes under the “Europe Creative” umbrella; (2) keep a strong focus on its traditional core, the distribution (local and international) and showing of European works, and thus ensure the continuity with the current programme. The main objective of the MEDIA programme is to promote the transnational circulation of audiovisual works and professionals in Europe and beyond, by supporting the distribution of audiovisual works in cinema screens, as well as on other relevant platforms, including television, video-on-demand, online platforms and festivals. This objective must remain at the heart of the future programme. (IL/transl.fl)