“Every year, [Cannes] reminds the world that cinema is not content; it’s culture,” said Sabine Verheyen, Vice-President of the European Parliament (EP), in her opening remarks at a Cannes Marché du Film panel on EU support of its audiovisual sector. Moderated by Cineuropa’s own Domenico La Porta and presented by the EP, the panel, entitled “Invest in What Matters: Supporting Europe’s Film Sector in the Next EU Long-term Budget (MFF)”, sought to break down the many intricacies behind EU programmes and provide a taste of what is to come.

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Verheyen went on to emphasise the urgency of the proposed 2028-2034 framework for European cultural policy, called AgoraEU, which would succeed the existing Creative Europe – MEDIA programme. “The strategic importance of this sector could not be greater,” she stressed, tying AgoraEU to Europe’s importance in shaping the transformation that the world is currently undergoing. She also explained how the LUX Audience Award acts as a creative method to connect politics and society across borders and languages.

Lucía Recalde, Director-General of Communications Networks, Content and Technology (DG Connect) at the European Commission, noted that seven films – nearly one-third of the titles – in the Cannes main competition are supported by MEDIA. AgoraEU will be a “new chapter”, she noted, and a continuation of “the protection of our shared values, [… which] are all the foundations of our democratic participation and societal resilience”.

She further assuaged the audience that independent production, European cinema networks and film distribution actions will remain a “cornerstone” of AgoraEU. Janine Jackowski, producer with the European Producers Club, stressed the importance of MEDIA for independent producers in particular. Edith Sepp, CEO of the Estonian Film Institute, echoed this sentiment while asking about the specifics of this forthcoming budget as a tool for planning.

In response, Emma Rafowicz, the EP’s Vice-Chair of the Committee on Culture and Education, and rapporteur of AgoraEU, made a case for its ability to deliver on what industry professionals need in order to thrive. “With new ambitions must come new precisions,” she declared, noting that the Parliament will ask for strong earmarks in the budget in order to have “predictability around how the budget is structured”.

Describing culture as an “integral part of European security”, Rafowicz and Verheyen also shared how AgoraEU is envisioned as being tied to core European values, especially with censorship on the rise. With a constant drive for defence funding, the latter reported what she says in response: “The best defence for our democracy and our society is culture, media and education,” which was met with a round of applause. Sepp expressed hope for the continued support of media literacy, necessary for cinema to become imbued with these European values: “If [young people] are not watching European films today, they’re not going to watch them in ten years’ time.”

In closing, Rafowicz asserted the predicted success of AgoraEU – economically, culturally, artistically and politically: “The European model is capable of reaching international audiences without giving up a strong artistic identity.”