WRITTEN QUESTION No. 1772/97 by Panayotis LAMBRIAS to the Commission. Cuts in Community funding for Euro Film News
Date: 1997-05-27
Institutions: European Parliament, LAMBRIAS
Subjects: EU aid, EU programme, Greece, audiovisual industry, audiovisual production, audiovisual programme, cultural transmission, financial aid, publication, vocational training

C 45/100

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

10. 2. 98

Answer given by Mr Fischler on behalf of the Commission

(18 June 1997)

The Community has been very active in the field of legislation concerning the welfare of farm animals. A series
of directives govern the rearing conditions of battery hens, pigs and calves, the protection of transported animals
and the conditions for animals at the time of slaughter. These directives, although primarily oriented towards
improvement of welfare standards, do aim also to facilitate this improvement in ways which do not distort the
operation of market sectors concerned, notably competition within these sectors.

Concerning the progress towards up-grading the minimum Community standards, the Honourable Member is
referred to the Commission(cid:146)s reply to written question no. 3488/96 by Mr Gahrton (1).

(1)  OJ C 186, 18.6.1997, p. 97.

(98/C 45/123)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1772/97

by Panayotis Lambrias (PPE) to the Commission

(27 May 1997)

Subject: Cuts in Community funding for Euro Film News

Euro Film News › the only European audiovisual project so far to be managed by Greece › has been a fruitful
and successful enterprise since May 1995. It is now threatened with closure owing to cutbacks in Community
funding.

Will the Commission include it among the activities funded by the MEDIA II programme to ensure the continued
presence of representatives of the smaller countries of the Union in the film industry, which is generally regarded
as essential?

Answer given by Mr Oreja on behalf of the Commission

(8 July 1997)

Euro Film News is both a newsletter and a bulletin. It has two functions. The first is to gather together articles
from newspapers and specialist magazines concerned primarily with the audio-visual industry in countries with a
small audio-visual output. The second is to distributing this information to the press, thereby drawing attention to
the audio-visual industry in countries with a low output.

Euro  Film  News  started  as  part  of  the  first  Media  Programme  (1991-1995),  with  funding  from  the  Greek
Government and Scale, one of the Programme’s 19 projects.

In line with the two Council decisions on Media’s priorities for 1996-2000 (1), the focus of attention was shifted
in  the  second  Media  Programme  to  three  priority  areas:  training  of  professionals  and  development  and
distribution of audio-visual and cinema works.

As a direct result of this refocusing, all activities organised as part of the nineteen Media schemes, including
Scale, were suspended and replaced with new projects. Unfortunately, the new system makes no provision for
funding for press publications, even such specialised ones as Euro Film News.

(1)  Decision 95/563/EC of 10 July 1995 on Media II (development and distribution), and Decision 95/564/EC of 22 December 1995 on Media II

(training): OJ L 321, 30.12.1995.