17/11/2005

The Ministers of audiovisual from the European Union reached this week a partial agreement on MEDIA 2007, which will replace the current MEDIA Training and MEDIA Plus programmes. Still to be agreed is the final budget of it, which will be determined by the financial perspectives 2007-2013.

The proposal presented to the European Parliament and to the Council last year asked for a 1.055 billion budget in order to reach the main global objectives of the programme: preserve and enhance European Cultural Diversity and its cinematographic and audiovisual heritage; increase the circulation of European audiovisual works inside and outside the E.U.; and strengthen the competitiveness of the European audiovisual sector in the framework of an open and competitive market. The proposed budget marks an increase compared to the budgets allocated till the end of 2006 to MEDIA Training (59.4M€) and MEDIA Plus (453.6M€).

Commissioner Viviane Reding stated that “Media 2007 will contribute to cultural diversity and support one of the greatest cultural undertakings in Europe” and expressed her satisfaction “on behalf of film makers and cinema goers”. Cineuropa met Yvon Thiec, general director of Eurocinema, who told us his impressions about the future of MEDIA (read the interview).

According to a report on the European film markets presented earlier this year by the European Audiovisual Observatory, 764 feature films were produced in the E.U. in 2004 and all major E.U. markets recorded rising admissions (the market share for European films was 26.5%, while US productions reached 71,4%).