22/10/2003

The Director General in charge of cinema for the Italian Ministry of Culture, Gianni Profita, has confirmed that agreement has been reached in Brussels to extend the EU MEDIA Plus programme until 2006. He made the announcement during his speech to delegates attending the 17th edition of Eurovisioni, the International Cinema and Television Festival, currently taking place in Rome.

He said that the EU needs to look at the questions raised by the upcoming enlargement of the Union, both from an economic and cultural point of view. Profita acknowledged that some of the issues could be painful, especially as far as funding is concerned. He warned that if the current system stays in place, countries like France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK could receive a much lower level of funding. Though he added that maybe it was time for countries to have a more European outlook and be prepared to make sacrifices.
Profita later noted that the progress of non-national European films may have been hampered by the actions taken by individual countries to protect their domestic cinematographic industries. Though he stressed that Italy has been working hard to promote non-national EU films.
In conclusion, he said that the Italian presidency of the EU would be presenting a summary of initiatives undertaken in the cultural and audiovisual sectors, including the encouraging of co-distribution deals, at a meeting to be held before the end of the year, in Taormina.