Council resolution of 12 February 2001 national aid to the film and audiovisual industries
Date: 2001-02-12
Institutions: Council of the European Union
Subjects: European audiovisual area, State aid, audiovisual production, cultural policy, film industry

6.3.2001

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 73/3

COUNCIL RESOLUTION

of 12 February 2001

national aid to the film and audiovisual industries

(2001/C 73/02)

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

8.

RECALLING that the Community takes cultural aspects
into account in its action under other Treaty provisions
in order,
to respect and promote the
diversity of its cultures;

in particular,

RECALLING that aid to promote culture and heritage
conservation may, where it does not affect
trading
conditions and competition in the Community to an
is contrary to the common interest, be
extent
regarded as compatible with the common market;

that

RECALLING the powers of the Commission under Article
88 of the Treaty;

REFERRING to the symposium on European cultural
industries in the digital age, organised in Lyons on 11
and 12 September 2000, during which participants
emphasised the need for the Member States to maintain
and implement national arrangements to support cultural
industries;

9.

RECALLING the discussions on the question of national
aid at the meeting of the Council of Ministers for Culture
on 26 September 2000;

10. EMPHASISES that, as the Commission has acknowledged:

(a)

the audiovisual industry is a cultural industry par
excellence;

RECALLING the Protocol on the application of the prin-
ciples of subsidiarity and proportionality annexed to the
Treaty;

(b) national aid to the film and audiovisual industries is
one of the chief means of ensuring cultural diversity;

EMPHASISING that the mandate given to the Commission
at the meeting of the General Affairs Council on 26 Octo-
ber 1999 states that ‘during the forthcoming WTO nego-
tiations the Union will ensure, as in the Uruguay Round,
that the Community and its Member States maintain the
right to preserve and to develop their capacity to define
and implement their cultural and audiovisual policies for
the purpose of preserving their cultural diversity’;

RECALLING the decisions of the Commission concerning
several national aid mechanisms for the film and audiovis-
ual industries;

Commission

communication

of
RECALLING the
14 December 1999 on principles and guidelines for the
Community’s audiovisual policy in the digital age, and
NOTING the Commission’s intention to present a com-
munication on the film industry in which it will set out
general guidelines for the application of State aid to this
sector;

(c)

(d)

(e)

the objective of cultural diversity presupposes the
industrial fabric necessary to satisfy that objective
and justifies the special nature of national aid to the
film and audiovisual
industries, adapted to the
specific circumstances involved;

these statements are particularly true in the case of
the development of the audiovisual
industry in
countries or regions where production capacity is
low and/or the linguistic or geographical area is
limited;

the European film and audiovisual sector is suffering
from structural weaknesses, including under-capital-
isation of undertakings, fragmentation of national
markets, which are dominated by non-European
productions, and poor transnational circulation of
European works; the national and European support
systems for this sector have a complementary and
essential role to play in solving these problems;

C 73/4

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

6.3.2001

11. REAFFIRMS, in consequence and in the light of all the

(c)

above, that:

appropriate means of increasing legal certainty for
these arrangements for preserving and promoting
cultural diversity should be examined;

(a)

the Member States are entitled to conduct national
policies to support the creation of film and audiovis-
ual products;

(d)

consequently, the dialogue between the Commission
and the Member States should be continued;

(b) national aid to the film and audiovisual industries
may contribute to the emergence of a European
audiovisual market;

12.

INVITES the Commission to brief the Council on the state
of its reflections as soon as possible and, at all events, at
the end of 2001.