eunbil · GT0N1249 · 2006-05-12 00:00:00 — THE EUROPEAN UNION , 2004/0151 (COD) from: Audiovisual Working Party to: (Part 1) No. doc. : 13812/05 AUDIO 35 CODEC 953 CADREFIN 219 No. : 11585/04 AUDIO 34 CODEC 922 CADREFIN 16 + ADD 1 - COM(2004) 470 final Subject: Proposal for a Decision of Parliament and the Council concerning the implementation of a programme of support for audiovisual sector (MEDIA 2007) Political agreement 1. At /the Council reached a partial political agreement on the above proposal, on the understanding that this political agreement would be completed once agreement had been reached on the financial framework for 2007-2013. Now that an agreement on the financial framework has been achieved, it should now be possible for 2006 to reach a full political agreement. With this in mind the Audiovisual Working Party of reexamined this dossier and reached agreement on the entire text, including the budget for the programme set out in Article 2(1) (page 11) and the indicative breakdown of this budget set out in point 1.4 of Chapter 2 of the to the Decision (pages 44 and 45). Only the EL delegation maintained a scrutiny reservation. The current Community support measures in favour of audiovisual industry (MEDIA Plus and the MEDIA-Training Programmes) run until . Under the proposed Decision, Community measures will be combined within a single programme (MEDIA 2007) for the period running from 1 January 2007 to . The new measures have as global objectives to: - strengthen the competitiveness of audiovisual sector in the framework of an open and competitive market; - increase the circulation of European audiovisual works inside and outside Union; and - preserve and enhance European cultural diversity and its cinematographic and audiovisual heritage, guarantee its accessibility for European citizens and promote intercultural dialogue. Coreper is invited to take note of the agreed text and to submit the file to agreement. The text of the agreement is annexed to this report. DECISION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL Concerning the implementation of a programme of support (MEDIA 2007) THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION, Having regard to the Treaty establishing Community, and in particular Articles 157(3) and 150(4) thereof, Having regard to the proposal from the Commission, Having regard to the opinion of Economic and , Having regard to the opinion of , Acting in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 251 of the Treaty, audiovisual sector has a key role to play in the emergence of European citizenship because it is one of the principal vectors for conveying the Union"s common and shared fundamental, social and cultural values to Europeans and especially young people. Community support is designed to enable audiovisual sector to promote intercultural dialogue, increase mutual awareness amongst Europes cultures and develop its political, cultural, social and economic potential, which constitutes genuine added value in the task of making European citizenship a reality. It is intended to enhance competitiveness and, in particular, to increase the market share in Europe of non-national European works. It is also necessary to promote citizenship and to do more to ensure respect for the principle of human dignity, promote equality between women and men and combat all forms of discrimination and exclusion, including racism and xenophobia. (2a) Article 3 of the Treaty establishing Community stipulates that for all activities it envisages the Community shall aim to eliminate inequalities and to promote equality, between men and women, while Article 13 of the same Treaty indicates that the Community shall take appropriate action to combat discrimination based on sex, racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation. (2b) All actions adopted under this programme must be compatible with the Charter of Fundamental Rights of Union and, in particular, Article 11 thereof on freedom of expression and media pluralism. (2c) Article 22 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of Union indicates that the Union shall respect cultural and linguistic diversity; it is, therefore, necessary to pay attention to the specific needs of the smaller countries of the Union and those with more than one linguistic area. Community support to the audiovisual sector takes account of Article 151 of the Treaty, which stipulates that: the Community shall contribute to the flowering of the cultures of the Member States, while respecting their national and regional diversity and at the same time bringing the common cultural heritage to the fore; the Community shall take cultural aspects into account in its action under other provisions of this Treaty, in particular in order to respect and to promote the diversity of its cultures. Community support to the audiovisual sector is also in with the new strategic aim defined for the Union by the , namely to boost training, employment, economic reform and social cohesion in a knowledge-based economy. In its conclusions, the Council stated that "the content industries create added value by exploiting and networking European cultural diversity". This approach was confirmed in the conclusions of the . Finally, Community support to the audiovisual sector is based on the considerable experience acquired in the MEDIA I, MEDIA II, MEDIA Plus and MEDIA-Training programmes , which have helped audiovisual industry to develop since 1991. This has emerged clearly in the evaluation of the above programmes . This showed that Community action should concentrate mainly: upstream of audiovisual production, on the development of European audiovisual works and on the acquisition and improvement of audiovisual skills, the latter needing to be seen as an integral part of the audiovisual pre-production process; downstream of production, on distribution, cinema exhibition and promotion of European audiovisual works. digitisation should make a decisive contribution to strengthening the audiovisual sector and should be a central feature of MEDIA 2007. Support for digital services and European catalogues is one of the programme"s priorities in order to overcome the fragmentation of audiovisual market. (6a) The Media programme should encourage authors (scriptwriters and directors) in the creative process and encourage them to develop and adopt new creative techniques which will strengthen the innovative capacity of audiovisual sector. (6b) There is more than one platform of digitisation in the projections of films, depending on different uses, users and needs. Pilot projects of the MEDIA programme are a test ground for future developments in the audiovisual sector. The preparatory action "Growth and Audiovisual: i2i Audiovisual", complementary to the MEDIA Plus and MEDIA Training programmes, marked a further stage in implementing the policy of Community support for the audiovisual sector. It was intended specifically to provide a remedy for the problems of access to funding of small and medium sized enterprises in this sector. The evaluation of "Growth and Audiovisual: i2i Audiovisual" confirmed that it met the sectors needs and confirmed the need to pursue Community action along these lines but that it should be more closely geared towards the specific needs of the sector. audiovisual sector is characterised by its considerable potential for growth, innovation and dynamism, by the fragmentation of the market as a function of cultural and linguistic diversity and, consequently, by a large number of medium-sized, small and very small enterprises with chronic undercapitalisation. For the purposes of implementing Community support, the specific nature of the audiovisual sector must be taken into account and it must be ensured that administrative and financial procedures in relation to the amount of support are [.] simplified as far as possible and adapted to the aims pursued and the sectors practices and requirements. (8a) Throughout the EU one major obstacle to competition is an almost complete lack of companies specialising in providing loan financing in the audiovisual sector. (8b) The Commission and the Member States should review their support for the audiovisual sector, in particular the results of the preparatory action "Growth and Audiovisual: i2i Audiovisual", to establish to what extent future support can simplify the development of specialist offers for SMEs in terms of loan financing. (8c) finance systems that have been developed in the Member States to promote national audiovisual projects and to mobilise private capital could be examined to see whether such capital could be made available for non-national European projects. Increased transparency and dissemination of information about audiovisual market can make operators in the sector, and especially small and medium-sized enterprises, more competitive. This could encourage private investors confidence by improving understanding of the industrys potential. This also makes it easier for Community action to be evaluated and followed up. Participation by Union in Audiovisual Observatory should help it to achieve these aims. In a Europe of 25 Member States cooperation is increasingly becoming a strategic response to strengthen the competitiveness of film industry. There is therefore a need for greater support for projects for EU-wide networks at all MEDIA programme levels - training, development, distribution and promotion. This applies in particular to cooperation with players from the Member States which joined the Union after . It should be emphasised that any strategy for cooperation between players in the audiovisual sector must comply with law. (11a) Public support for cinema at European national, regional or local level is essential to overcome the sectors structural difficulties and allow audiovisual industry to meet the challenge of globalisation. European Union accession countries and those EFTA countries which are parties to the EEA Agreement are recognised as potential participants in Community programmes in accordance with the agreements concluded with these countries. (12a) Cooperation between MEDIA and Eurimages needs to be strengthened, but without leading to integration in financial and administrative matters. Council in Thessalonica of 19 and 20 2003 adopted "The agenda for the Western : Moving towards European integration", providing that Community programmes should be open to countries in the process of stabilisation and association on the basis of framework agreements to be signed between the Community and these countries. The other European countries which are parties to on are an integral part of audiovisual area and should therefore be enabled to participate in this programme on the basis of supplementary appropriations in accordance with conditions to be laid down in the agreements between the parties concerned; those countries should be able, if they wish and taking into account budgetary considerations or priorities of their audiovisual industries, to participate in the programme or benefit under a more limited cooperation formula on the basis of supplementary appropriations and specific arrangements to be agreed between the parties concerned. Cooperation with non-European third countries developed on the basis of mutual and balanced interests may create added value for audiovisual industry in terms of promotion, market access, distribution, dissemination and exhibition of European works in those countries; such cooperation should be developed on the basis of supplementary appropriations and specific arrangements to be agreed upon with the parties concerned. Suitable measures should be implemented to prevent irregularities and fraud and to recover funds which have been lost or transferred or used improperly. This Decision establishes a budget for the entire duration of the programme which constitutes a benchmark within the meaning of points 33 and 34 of the Interinstitutional agreement between Parliament, the Council and the Commission of 6 1999 on budgetary discipline and improvement of budgetary procedure. The measures required to implement this Decision should be adopted in accordance with Council Decision 1999/468/EEC of 28 1999 laying down the procedures for the exercise of implementing powers conferred on the Commission. (18a) The arrangements for monitoring and evaluating actions should include detailed annual reports as well as specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound objectives and indicators. Provision needs to be made for measures governing the transition from the programmes established by Council Decision 2000/821/EC of and Decision 163/2001/EC of 19 January 2001 of Parliament and the Council, and the programme established by this Decision. CHAPTER 1: GLOBAL OBJECTIVES AND BUDGET Objectives and priorities of the programme This Decision establishes a programme for support to audiovisual sector, hereinafter referred to as the "programme", for a period running from 1 January 2007 to . The audiovisual sector is an essential vector for conveying and developing European cultural values and for creating highly-skilled future oriented jobs. Its creativity is a positive factor for competitiveness and cultural appeal with the public. The programme is intended to strengthen the audiovisual sector economically to enable it to play its cultural roles more effectively by developing an industry with powerful and diversified content and a valuable and accessible heritage and to add value to national support. The global objectives of the programme are to: preserve and enhance European cultural and linguistic diversity and its cinematographic and audiovisual heritage, guarantee its accessibility to European citizens and promote intercultural dialogue; increase the circulation and viewership of European audiovisual works inside and outside Union, including through greater cooperation between players; strengthen the competitiveness of audiovisual sector in the framework of an open and competitive European market favourable to employment, including by promoting links between audiovisual professionals. In order to achieve these objectives, the programme will support: upstream of audiovisual production: the acquisition and improvement of skills in the audiovisual field and the development of European audiovisual works; downstream of audiovisual production: the distribution and promotion of European audiovisual works; pilot projects to ensure that the programme adjusts to market developments. The priorities in the areas for intervention set out in paragraph 3 shall be as follows: fostering creativity in the audiovisual sector and knowledge and dissemination of Europes cinematographic and audiovisual heritage; strengthening the structure and financing of audiovisual sector, particularly SMEs; reducing the imbalances in audiovisual market between high audiovisual production capacity countries and countries or regions with low audiovisual production capacity and/or a restricted geographic and linguistic area; following and supporting market developments with regard to digitisation, including the promotion of attractive digital catalogues of European films on digital platforms. The budget for implementing this programme for the period set out in Article 1(1) is fixed at 671 million . The indicative breakdown of this amount according to areas is reflected in point 1.4 of Chapter 2 of the . The annual appropriations shall be authorised by the budgetary authority within the limits of the financial perspectives. CHAPTER 2: SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES UPSTREAM OF AUDIOVISUAL PRODUCTION Acquisition and improvement of skills in the audiovisual field In the field of acquisition and improvement of skills, the objectives of the programme strengthen the skills of European audiovisual professionals in the fields of development, production, distribution/dissemination and promotion, in order to improve the quality and potential of European audiovisual works. The programme shall support notably action in the following areas: scriptwriting techniques with the aim of increasing the quality of European audiovisual works and their potential circulation; financial and commercial management of production, distribution and promotion of audiovisual works to enable European strategies to be devised right from the development phase; inclusion upstream of digital technologies for production, post-production, distribution, marketing and archiving of European audiovisual programmes. Steps should also be taken to ensure that professionals and trainers from other countries than those in which training activities supported under (a) to (c) of this Article take place participate. improve dimension of audiovisual training activities by: support for the networking and mobility of European training professionals, in particular: European film schools; partners in the professional sector; training for trainers; support for film schools; adoption of coordination activities and of promotion of the bodies supported in relation to the activities set out in paragraph 1 of this Article. enable, through special scholarships, professionals from the Member States which have acceded to Union after to take part in the training activities set out in paragraph 1 of this Article. The measures set out in paragraphs 1 to 3 of this Article shall be implemented in accordance with the provisions in the . In the development sector, the objectives of the programme are to: support the development of production projects intended for and international market, submitted by independent production companies; support the elaboration of financial plans for companies and projects for European productions, in particular financing of co-productions. The measures set out in points (a) and (b) of this paragraph shall be implemented in accordance with the provisions in the . The Commission shall take steps to ensure that the activities supported in the field of improving professional skills and those set out in paragraph 1 of this Article complement each other. The measures set out in paragraphs 1 and 2 of this Article shall be implemented in accordance with the provisions in the . CHAPTER 3: SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES DOWNSTREAM OF AUDIOVISUAL PRODUCTION In the field of distribution and dissemination, the programmes [.] objectives are to: strengthen European distribution by encouraging distributors to invest in the co-production, acquisition and promotion of non-national European films and to set up coordinated marketing strategies; improve the circulation of non-national European films on and International markets by incentive measures for export, distribution on any medium and cinema exhibition; promote the transnational dissemination of European audiovisual works produced by independent production companies by encouraging cooperation between broadcasters on the one hand and independent producers and distributors on the other, encourage the digitisation of European audiovisual works and the development of a competitive digital market place; encourage cinemas to exploit the possibilities offered by digital distribution. The measures set out under points (a) to (e) of this Article shall be implemented in accordance with the provisions in the . In the field of promotion, the objectives of the programme are to: improve the circulation of European audiovisual works by ensuring that audiovisual sector has access to European and International professional markets; improve and international publics access to European audiovisual works; encourage common actions between national film and audiovisual programme promotion organisations; encourage promotion of Europes cinematographic and audiovisual heritage and improvement of the public"s access to it at both European and international level. The measures set out in points (a) to (d) of this Article shall be implemented in accordance with the provisions in the . CHAPTER 4: PILOT PROJECTS The programme may support pilot projects to ensure that the programme adapts to market developments, with a particular emphasis on the introduction and utilisation of information and communication technologies. For the purposes of implementing paragraph 1 of this Article, the Commission shall be advised by technical advisory groups made up of experts designated by the Member States in response to a proposal by the Commission. CHAPTER 5: ARRANGEMENTS FOR IMPLEMENTING THE PROGRAMME AND FINANCIAL PROVISIONS Provisions concerning third countries The programme is open to the participation of the following countries as long as the required conditions are met and supplementary appropriations are received: EFTA States which are members of the EEA, in accordance with the provisions of the EEA agreement; accession countries benefiting from a strategy for pre-accession to Union in accordance with the general principles and general conditions and arrangements for these countries participating in Community programmes laid down in the framework agreement and the decisions respectively; the Western countries in accordance with arrangements made with these countries following framework agreements to be established governing their participation in Community programmes. The programme is also open to the participation of States which are parties to on other than those referred to in paragraph 1, assuming that supplementary appropriations are received in compliance with the conditions to be agreed upon between the parties concerned. Opening up of the programme to European third countries covered by paragraphs 1 and 2 may be subject to prior examination of the compatibility of their national legislation with Community legislation, including Article 6 paragraph 5 of Directive 89/552/EEC, as amended by Directive 97/36/EC. This provision does not apply to actions under Article 3. The programme is also open to cooperation with other third countries which have concluded association and cooperation agreements with Union incorporating on the audiovisual sector and on the basis of supplementary appropriations and specific arrangements to be agreed upon. Western countries referred to in paragraph 1 that do not wish to participate fully in the programme may benefit from cooperation with the programme under the conditions provided for in this paragraph. Legal and natural persons may be the beneficiaries of the programme. Without prejudice to the agreements and conventions to which the Community is a contracting party, enterprises which benefit from the programme must be owned and must continue to be owned, whether directly or by majority participation, by Member States and/or nationals. The Commission may decide, depending on the beneficiaries and the type of action, whether they may be exempted from verification of the professional skills and qualifications required to successfully complete an action or programme of work. The Commission may also take into account the type of activity supported, the specific profile of the target public from the audiovisual sector and the objectives of the programme. Depending on the type of action, financial aid may take the form of grants or scholarships. The Commission may also award prizes for the programmes activities or projects. Depending on the nature of the activity, the use of scales of unit costs or flat-rate financing for contributions of no more than the amount mentioned in Article 181 of Commission Regulation No. 2342/2002 may be authorised. In the case of selective aid for distribution and in compliance with Article 109 (2) of Council Regulation (EC Euratom) No 1605/2002 overall takings during the first year of cinematographic exploitation of the film will be reimbursed up to the level of the MEDIA Programme"s contribution (excluding support for dubbing/subtitling).