Brussels, 19/05/2004 (Agence Europe) - "Europe Day", and initiative launched last year by the European Commission as part of the Cannes Festival, to promote European cinema, closed on 18 May, in the presence of European Commissioner for Culture, Viviane Reding. The Culture Ministers from most Member States (Belgium, Czech Republic, Germany, Estonia, France, Italy, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Slovakia, Sweden and United Kingdom) and Ms Reding published a joint statement after the meeting, in which they stress the importance of promoting European cinema and giving it the financial resources it needs to develop. The Ministers and the European Commission underlined the essential role of the cinema as a vector of cultural heritage for on Member State to another, in the particular context of the enlargement of the EU to the east. Films are particularly capable of "promoting dialogue between cultures, both in Europe and internationally, because of the power of images and because they can be shown and broadcast widely", said the Commission in a press release. Aside from the need to develop cinema creation and to spread the culture of the cinema more broadly, Ministers and Ms Reding insisted that an increase in financial resources is necessary to achieve these objectives. In their statement, they undertake to encourage the promise of young European film-makers, under-used and suffering from the fragmentation of the market in Europe, due to a series of initiatives. In particular, they mentioned the creation of a collaboration network between European schools, and the adoption of measures designed to increase the circulation of films between Member States.