Brussels, 22/07/2004 (Agence Europe) - In a press statement, FERA (the European Federation of Audio-visual Directors) "congratulates and thanks Commission Viviane Reding" for the support she has given to the European cultural and audio-visual industry by proposing to increase the "Media" programme's budget in the next period by 65%. With a budget of EUR 638 million for 2000-06, the Commission has in fact offered, with the support of Commissioner Reding, to increase this budget by EUR 1.055 bn for 2007-13, in the context of a complete series of proposals which she formulated last week for the new generation of "Education, Youth and Culture" programmes (EUROPE 16 July 2004 p 10). As well as the increase in the budget envelope, which remains, however, "a minimum to maintain the European audio-visual cultural industry at a high international level" FERA particularly welcomed the fact that "Media 2007" would be open to candidate countries at an EU pre-accession stage, as well as Western Balkan countries. The Federation is calling on the Council of Ministers and the Parliament to immediately follow the position of the Commission.