Brussels, 25/09/2000 (Agence Europe) - The battle has not yet been won for the French Presidency, which hopes to receive, on Tuesday, the endorsement of the Culture Council on the forthcoming aid programme for the European audiovisual industry, "Media Plus". As always, discussions will cover the budgetary allocation. In July, during an informal meeting in Lille (see EUROPE of 24 and 25 July, p.6), the debate had been cut short before the intransigence shown by the Netherlands, which was not inclined to develop Community actions in this field. Technical meetings have since allowed the Fifteen to more or less cover the whole content of the programme. The question of its budget and budgetary breakdown between the various actions in support of development (as well as production and the distribution and promotion of films) will, however, only be settled at political level and, for the most part, with Council unanimity. In order to avoid suspension of European aid to the cinema sector, it is imperative for Media Plus to come into force on 1 January 2001. The French Presidency therefore has rather a tight margin of manoeuvre.
On Tuesday, it is bargaining on an agreement for EUR 400 million over five years, the amount proposed by the European Commission. "There are many good arguments in favour of this solution", explains Jocelyne Caballero, responsible for culture and the permanent French representation in Brussels. The Commission's proposal is extremely reasonable since it is at the same level as for 1995 (even though the budget finally adopted for Media II was only 310 million); the margin for manoeuvre under heading 3 of the financial perspectives is sufficient to accept that amount, and compared to the position of the European Parliament (550 million), this seems to be the least we can do."
The majority of States would be ready to rally around the European Commission's proposals. "Going beyond that seems difficult even though some would be in favour. Some (essentially Denmark, the UK and the Netherlands: Ed.) still find this too ambitious", the diplomat stipulated. The Netherlands is even very far from this goal, as it wants to limit the budget to 266 million euro.
The French Presidency wants, moreover to broach the issue of national systems for supporting the cinema. The European Commission is currently examining some of these, and several Member States have shown concern at no longer being able to support as they would wish certain audiovisual works.