Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-11-12-Speech-1-115"
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"en.20011112.10.1-115"2
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"Mr President, I rise to speak in place of Ruth Hieronymi, who actually should have been speaking, but is unfortunately unwell. I am very glad to be able to do so, and congratulate the rapporteur. It is not that often that we have somebody speaking here who is as knowledgeable about his subject as is Mr Vander Taelen, who is a film-maker himself. So, well done, my dear Mr Vander Taelen.
I think your report really does provide much needed impetus. As you said, the market share of European films in the cinemas of the European Union is at an historic low point of only 22.5%. The dominance of the American film industry is also reflected in the grossly excessive trade deficit of EUR 6.8 billion.
The situation in the acceding countries is even more dramatic. There is another problem, apart from the clear dominance of films from the USA, which we must not draw a veil over. We often talk in this House of our desire to promote European films, but many are thinking only of their own national film industry and not of their neighbour's, whose films, European films, are not seen in neighbouring regions often enough.
The Commission and the Council as well, must, as a matter of urgency, at last produce a plan to make the European film industry competitive. This is also a sector in which there is money to be made, as the Americans show us. Perhaps the powers-that-be will eventually wake up and do more here.
The central deficits are in the distribution and marketing of our films and, of course, the industry is chronically undercapitalised. I am therefore very glad that we, Parliament, Commission and Council together, have, in the Media-Plus programme above all, got to grips with the twin areas of marketing and distribution and are endeavouring to give help.
I am, of course, also glad that, at the Commissioner's suggestion, the European Investment Bank is also willing to do something about this by making risk capital available for the realisation of audiovisual projects. I believe, then, that we have given a lot of things a push in this area, but can do still more. I also find it a good thing that we are achieving tax breaks at the level of the Member States, and that we can do something to enable filmmakers from one country to get resources and help from another. That, then, is possible. I think this could also be used in the framework of the i2i initiative to promote investment in the infrastructure of independent cinemas, as we propose in this report. I believe that the extension of cinemas in economically weaker regions in the framework of the European Structural Fund can be helpful.
There is a lot more that I could say. I am not entirely in agreement with item 7, in which the call is made for television broadcasters to be obliged to reserve a certain proportion of transmission time for foreign films. That, of course, meets with great resistance from the broadcasters. We will discuss that when examining the ‘Television without Frontiers’ directive and will perhaps find a way through. Again, congratulations!"@en1
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