Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-11-12-Speech-1-124"
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"en.20011112.10.1-124"2
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Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, my colleague, Viviane Reding, was unable to join us for this debate because she is in Brussels at the Council meeting of sports ministers, but she asked me to pass on her thanks to Mr Vander Taelen for his excellent report.
Item 26 of the motion for a resolution calls on the Commission to perform a feasibility study of the possibility of ‘interconnecting’ the existing automatic support funds of the Member States and regions. It must be reiterated that an assessment was already carried out in 1998 in Birmingham, by the ‘Club des Producteurs Européens’. The working group associated with the Commission came to the following conclusion: the proposed mechanism would, in practice, exclude many Member States who have no automatic support system for production. As a result, the automatic support funds of the smaller countries would be drained by the more commercially successful countries, in other words, the main producing countries.
Item 27 of the motion for a resolution calls on the Committee to perform a feasibility study of the possibility of setting up a European Promotion Fund. Council Decision No 2000/821/EC establishing the MEDIA Plus programme already, in its ‘Promotion’ section, lays down support for promotional activities in favour of European creation, in other words, approximately 8% of the budget.
Lastly, the Commission welcomes the amendment, which was tabled in plenary by the rapporteur, to set up an implementing agency. The Commission will inform the rapporteur and Parliament about its proposal on this issue.
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, these are the Commission’s comments on the report by Mr Vander Taelen, who I would again like to thank.
This initiative shows that the European Parliament is fully aware of the strategic importance, both economic and cultural, of the European film industry, but also of what hampers the circulation of films and other audiovisual works in the internal market and candidate countries, as several Members have pointed out.
The European Commission, which fully supports the report’s objectives, welcomes its adoption. The Commission is also pleased that our two institutions share the same viewpoint regarding the need to pursue an ambitious European policy in order to make the European audiovisual industry more competitive. Several recent initiatives by the Commission in this area are proof of this common approach.
As you are more than aware, the recent Commission communication on certain legal aspects related to cinematographic and other audiovisual works that my colleague, Viviane Reding, presented to the Council on 5 November, tackles the issues of the circulation of E-cinema, the tax regime applied to the industry, the protection of European audiovisual heritage, the classification of works and other problems affecting the circulation of films and other audiovisual works. The implementation of the measures set out in this communication, combined with the application of the MEDIA Plus programme (2001-2005) and the joint initiative undertaken by the Commission and the European Investment Bank, i2i Audiovisual, should help to significantly improve the situation of European films.
If I may, Mr President, I would like to come back to some points of the motion for a resolution which has been submitted to you. With regard to the measures that are currently being undertaken, the second point of the motion for a resolution calls on the Commission to pursue a consistent Community policy on the film industry, particularly as regards the application of its competition policy. The above-mentioned communication provides the film industry with increased legal certainty by specifying, as part of a constructive and positive approach, the criteria used by the Commission when assessing national support schemes for the film sector under the Treaty’s rules on State funding. To date, all the national schemes reviewed on this basis have been accepted by the Commission.
Item 5 of the motion for a resolution calls on the Commission, in implementing MEDIA Plus, to draw attention to the Europa Cinemas network of cinemas, and item 6 calls on the Commission to support the ‘Shooting Stars’ initiative of the organisation European Film Promotion.
These projects are undeniably of value and have received Community support for several years as part of the MEDIA programme. However, it is important to point out that the actions under the MEDIA programme are subject to calls for proposals and to the principle of fair competition and project selection according to a transparent procedure.
Item 7 of the motion for a resolution calls on the Commission, when revising the directive, to investigate the desirability and feasibility of imposing new quotas on broadcasters. The Commission has already launched, pursuant to Article 25(a) of the directive, an independent study to assess the impact of measures for promoting the production and distribution of European television programmes. This study will also assess, more specifically, the effectiveness of quotas laid down under the directive, compared to other support measures. Furthermore, at the beginning of 2002, the Commission will undertake a public consultation on this subject. It will urge all the parties concerned to submit written comments. The results of the various studies and of the public consultation will provide a significant contribution to the communication on the review of the directive and any proposals for amendments, which the Commission plans to submit to the Council and to the European Parliament towards the end of 2002.
Item 33 of the motion for a resolution calls on the Commission to consider introducing specific European regulations in order to stimulate the development of the film industry in the candidate countries. This central concern is taken into account as part of the external action of the European audiovisual policy under the heading of enlargement. Candidate countries are therefore obliged to respect the ‘acquis communautaire’ where the audiovisual sector is concerned. As you know, this mainly concerns the ‘Television Without Frontiers’ Directive. In addition, they will be able to take part in the MEDIA programme as soon as they have reached a high degree of compatibility with the ‘acquis communautaire’. Furthermore, nine candidate countries were asked to take part in the MEDIA Plus programme. The aim is for these countries to participate from the beginning of 2002."@en1
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