WRITTEN QUESTION P-2869/97 by Alexandros Alavanos (GUE/NGL) to the Commission (1 September 1997)

Subject: The Media II programme

Can the Commission specify how the appropriations for the Media II programme (in particular Media II - development) for 1997 have been allocated?

What has been the degree of participation in the programme so far?

Why are proposals involving countries with a smaller production capacity, such as Greece and Portugal, systematically rejected?

By what means, and in accordance with which criteria, is the effectiveness and objectivity of selections guaranteed?

What are the criteria used when selecting contributors (readers, experts, etc.) and how are they recompensed? Are efforts made to use contributors on a rotating basis?

What steps are being taken to protect the linguistic and more general cultural specialities of programme-creators?

How can genuinely creative people be protected against profiteering by middlemen?

Answer given by Mr Oreja on behalf of the Commission (7 October 1997)

In 1997 the Commission organised four calls for proposals in the development sector of the MEDIA II programme ((OJ L 321, 30.12.1995. )) (Council Decision 95/563/EC of 22 December 1995). Due to the very high level of participation (on average, 1000 projects per call), the selection process is relatively lengthy. This means that, for 1997, only the results of the first development call can be communicated at this stage. The results of the second and third calls are expected for the end of September; those of the fourth call for the beginning of December.

Out of a total of 1343 projects submitted in the first development call organised in 1997 158 projects were selected for a total amount of 3.5 MECU.

Since the launching of the MEDIA II programme, the Commission has made sure that positive discrimination measures in favour of projects submitted by companies registered in Member States with a low audiovisual production capacity are systematically applied. Furthermore, specific information and training sessions targeted at potential applicants from those Member States are organised. As a result the MEDIA II programme has received an increasing amount of proposals from Member States with a low audiovisual production capacity. It should also be stressed that the relative percentage of projects selected is always higher than that of projects submitted (on average 30% of selected projects as compared to 25% of applications). In the particular case of the two Member States mentioned (i.e. Greece and Portugal), the ratio between projects submitted to projects selected corresponds to the overall average for all Member States of 10 to 12%.

In accordance with the Council Decision, the selection criteria on the basis of which all projects are assessed are those announced in the guidelines of each call for proposals, which in turn have been approved by the members of the committee prior to publication.

In order to ensure fair treatment for all projects submitted, the readers or assessors involved in advising the Commission during the selection procedure are chosen on the basis of their knowledge and expertise to provide quality assessments of the scripts submitted in their original language. As far as the experts serving on individual panels of experts are concerned, these are chosen from lists submitted by members of the MEDIA committee to the Commission and are consulted on a rotating basis.