18/03/2003 - France's CNC comes out in support of Europe's 15 member-states maintaining subsidies for film production

On 17 March, the National Film Centre (CNC) came out in support of a joint declaration made by Europe’s 15 leading film industry institutions in favour of maintaining state subsidies for their respective film industries.
The decision to stand together was taken by France’s CNC and the UK’s Film Council at the last Cannes Film Festival, and the concept was opened up to include the representatives of all 15 member states at the 2002 Venice Film Festival, last December’s EFA Awards in Rome and the 2003 Berlinale. It was important to lay down the guidelines for the future prior to the forthcoming renegotiation of the current guidelines (that were put in place on 16 September 2001 and will run until 2004) with the European Commission.
Under the current system, and in light of the cultural nature of the industry, an upper limit of 50 per cent of costs was placed on all state aid for film production (the only exceptions being small-budget productions). The current system also allows the producer the freedom to spend up to 20 per cent of the budget in any of the 15 EU member states without incurring in sanctions that lose him his state support. Furthermore, the technical industries, and especially the post-production sector, cannot be given any supplementary aid.
Speaking at a press conference to present the CNC’s end-of-year report for 2002, CNC DG David Kessler was eager to emphasise just how important it was for each of the 15 member states’ film industries to know as much about the situation of their sister industries as possible and to present a united front to ensure that the same goals were achieved for all interested parties as efficiently as possible. "This first step confirms the intention of the various national film agencies to encourage the creation of a real European film industry, through the preservation and strengthening of each individual country’s industry. It also bears witness to our common desire to work together to find solutions to the problems we all share.”

(Translated from French)