Mr President, as soon as I became a Member of this Parliament two and a half years ago, I asked Commissioner Reding what she intended to do about the precarious situation European cinema found itself in. As a film-maker, I have always wondered how long Europe would put up with the systematic decline of what is, after all, a substantial part of our cultural heritage. Indeed, in the 60s, European films still accounted for 60% of the supply in Europe. Nowadays, that percentage has unfortunately dropped to 22%. That is an all-time low. European films only obtain 26% of their income from outside their own countries. That is certainly far too low. The trade deficit with the US has therefore increased to, and I happily quote this figure because it is so enormous, EUR 6 829 million. This is a gigantic sum, and we should certainly be able to reduce Europe’s trade deficit vis-à-vis America. Despite this, Europe makes more, and perhaps even better, films than America, although that is very much a matter of opinion. However, the fact that it is so difficult to watch a film from another European country in one’s own country is an outright scandal. It is exceptionally difficult to watch a Spanish film in Greece, or to watch an Italian film in the Netherlands, barring a few exceptions. However, I do believe that it would bear witness to outmoded short-sightedness to call for a large-scale injection of funding into European cinema. In my opinion, Europe has sufficient muscle, creative muscle, muscle by actors and authors but also by sponsors, to make European cinema rise from the ashes. That is why European cinema requires no subsidies. We simply need the resources and the environment to be able to work in a creative manner once again. That is why I call for a very ambitious European project. In my view, we must first of all identify the fundamental weakness of European film, which is certainly not on a creative but rather on a financial plane. It is exceptionally difficult for European businesses that are willing to invest in European film to obtain bank guarantees, for example, in order to cover the risk of their investments. This is much less of a problem in America on account of the huge financial capacity of the studios. That is why we are witnessing a kind of capital flight from Europe to America. We must try to buck this trend. I think we can expect the European Investment Bank to help us in this by acting as guarantor for banks which, in turn, wish to help those who want to invest in Europe. This funding is required to provide European producers with the necessary resources to reinforce the European film and to eliminate its weaknesses – and I am talking here about the lack of development. European films are not being developed sufficiently. Americans deliberate longer and work longer on films before they are launched. We lack the resources to do this. We can also learn a great deal from the Americans in terms of advertising. Even if we have the expertise, we lack the funding to carry out their promotion and marketing strategies. I am convinced that if we can support the producers in this, the situation could change. I also think that we should, for example, consider Structural Funds. These can be used to strengthen smaller cinemas in less developed areas. This is virgin territory at the moment. I would appreciate it if the Commission were to give this matter some thought. I should also like to talk about the way we will be protecting our heritage. It is unfortunate that many films are lost. The memory of European cinema is being lost. Europe should be ambitious in this respect because it is very important to our children’s education that young people can watch these films. I will wind up my speech here, for I have made some thirty recommendations in my report. I should like to thank the members of the Committee on Culture, Youth, Education, the Media and Sport for the very constructive manner in which we have worked together and I hope, therefore, that this will culminate in approval tomorrow.

Political group: Verts-ALE