Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-05-09-Speech-1-113"
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"en.20050509.17.1-113"2
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".
Mr President, cinema is the beloved child of European culture. It was born in the golden age of European civilisation, together with other scientific and important technological inventions. All that happened before the Great Wars period and before the illusion of the 19th century broke into pieces. Cinema was born in Paris, the capital of art, revolution and glamour at the time. In the space of a year the first films were shown all over Europe in cafes, theatres and other public places. Films and filming became a rapidly developing activity for thousands of mostly young men and women. In the first three decades of cinema history the European silent film conquered the word thanks to its artistic merits.
The young American film industry was also pioneered by gifted European immigrants. The invention of the talking movie definitively changed the world of cinema. Multilingualism proved a barrier to the marketing of cinematographic products and some might have felt that the linguistic richness of Europe of which we are so proud became a disadvantage from a competition perspective. This paradoxical situation should be tackled through subsidising cinematographic products with national and European funds – not the film industry as a business but its cultural and linguistic plurality, which is the very essence of Europe, needs that funding. Every European government should do its best to defend our unique cultural richness, protecting and encouraging European cinema, which speaks to every European nation in its mother tongue.
I welcome the strong commitment of our governments to maintaining the existing formula for subsidising cinema. Film and filming is not only art and entertainment. After the Second World War many destroyed buildings were reconstructed with the help of film sequences. The film heritage of Europe covers every aspect of our life from the end of the 19th century to the dawn of this new century. The preservation of this heritage means the preservation of the memories of our culture and history, everyday life, big events, small tragedies and common joys. If the old films are lost, younger people are hardly likely to understand their ancestors’ lives. The national film archives play an important role in preserving our film heritage. If a film is properly archived its message will be saved for the future.
That is the reason why I, as rapporteur, recommend the compulsory depositing of every European film made for public distribution in the archives. The national film institutes and archives of Europe should harmonise and standardise their archiving systems. In doing so we can ensure that our film heritage will really become our common and public heritage. The digitalisation of European films, the setting up of a common database and the cooperation of the national film academies and archives serve a common aim: to save our film heritage and to make it accessible to everyone.
This proposal, in the form of a recommendation, aims at ensuring a more systematic deposit and preservation of European films to safeguard Europe’s audiovisual heritage.
I believe that due to a very constructive approach by my Parliament colleagues, Mrs Descamps and Mrs Gibault, the Committee on Culture, Youth, Education, the Media and Sport, as also the inclusive and active role played by the Luxembourg presidency, a good compromise for first reading agreement has been achieved. This dossier shows the added value of codecision and serves as a good example of how Parliament and the Council can together agree on a number of important issues that can make the initial Commission proposal more comprehensive and effective.
Let me point to those issues to which Parliament attached great priority and which were taken on board by the Council. As a result of Parliament’s approach, the deposit of films will, in all cases, be mandatory or compulsory, so that a systematic collection is secured throughout Europe. There is now a definite time period within which Member States have to adopt the necessary measures to ensure the preservation of the European film heritage. In order to ensure the quality of the deposited works, it is now a requirement that the deposited copy has to be of high quality. In order to make our common film heritage as comprehensive as possible it is stipulated that after a transitional period every film must be deposited and not only those that receive public funding. In order to know what collection each Member State has, the report proposes a network of databases, where already functioning Council of Europe institutions such as the European Observatory in Strasbourg can play an important role.
I believe that a good compromise has been found. I ask you to support the report to enable the first reading agreement, which would be in the interests of our common film heritage.
I am grateful for the kind words of Commissioner Reding, from Luxembourg. We both started our careers as young journalists, as film or theatre critics. It is good that we can cooperate on this report."@en1
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