The European Film Agency Directors (EFAD) has expressed “deep disappointment” with the recent opinion adopted by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) regarding the draft convention on the co-production of audiovisual works in the form of series. According to EFAD, the amendments adopted by the PACE Committee on Culture, Science, Education and Media “strip the draft convention of its core provisions designed to protect the diversity of European cultural creation for the benefit of audiences”.

EFAD argues that the revised text shifts the focus of the convention from its original cultural goals to economic competitiveness, thereby weakening safeguards meant to support independent producers and cultural diversity. The association stresses that the convention was conceived as a voluntary framework, not a regulatory or market tool, aimed at ensuring fair value-sharing, preventing concentration of rights, and allowing producers to build sustainable catalogues of intellectual property.

Among the deleted provisions are limits on the participation share of non-party countries (previously capped at 30%), recognition of the role of independent producers, and measures ensuring their retention of IP rights. EFAD warns that removing these elements risks undermining the sustainability of Europe’s independent production sector, while opening the door to large, non-European players accessing public funds intended for cultural works.

The association also rejects claims that the convention interferes with national or EU law, arguing that it fully respects national definitions. Moreover, EFAD views calls for a market impact assessment as “ignoring the cultural nature of the convention”, which it sees as an instrument to foster diversity and safeguard those most at risk in the creative process.

EFAD is now urging the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers to preserve the convention’s original ambition, as defined in the Budapest Drama Series Process, by empowering independent producers and ensuring that European audiences continue to benefit from a broad range of diverse and distinctive series.