18/12/2002 - President Toubon promises to be pro-active in getting more funds and creating a co-production workgroup

During his first press conference, Jacques Toubon, the new president of Eurimages said that one of his main goals would be to increase the funds earmarked by the European Council to fund European film production.
Toubon said he was only too well aware of the findings of the Renard Report, published at the end of November by the CNC, according to which Eurimages was operating under a bureaucratic stranglehold. Toubon emphasised the need for reform and promised to be very pro-active. “The position of the Fund must be strengthened and recognised by the States and by industry professionals,” he said, adding the Fund must work towards steadying the current instability in the way in which European films are funded, and be “an element of stability and a pillar of the European cultural identity in the face of competition from the United States”.
The first reform that Toubon will implement is the creation of a workgroup for co-productions made up of Toubon himself, and one delegate from each of the following countries: Bulgaria, the Netherlands, Spain, Ireland, Hungary and Denmark. The group will meet for the first time on 24 February, prior to the first full Eurimages board meeting, and will examine the candidates for funding.
It will not be possible to implement the most important reforms before December 2003, when Eurimages’s political committee will meet. The committee has already commissioned two studies in light of any future decisions.

(Translated from French)