CELEX: 51985PC0174
Language: en
Date: 1985-04-29
Title: PROPOSAL FOR A COUNCIL REGULATION (EEC) ON A COMMUNITY AID SCHEME FOR NON-DOCUMENTARY CINEMA AND TELEVISION CO-PRODUCTIONS

22.5.85                                Official Journal of the European Communities                           No C 125/13
                                                              II
                                                      (Preparatory Acts)
                                                COMMISSION
              Proposal for a Council Regulation (EEC) on a Community aid scheme for non-documentary
                                            cinema and television co-productions
                                                     COM(85) 174 final
                              (Submitted by the Commission to the Council on 23 April 1985)
                                                       (85/C 125/09)
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN                                       criteria should be given Community aid to supplement
COMMUNITIES,                                                      national contributions;
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European             Whereas such aid is necessary to attain a number of
Economic Community, and in particular Article 235                 Community objectives in the context of the operation of
thereof,                                                          the common market; whereas the Treaty has not
                                                                  provided the necessary powers;
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,
                                                                  Whereas Community aid should not be such as to affect
                                                                  its compatibility with the EEC Treaty rules on
Having regard to the opinion of the European Par-                 competition, the free movement of workers or freedom
liament,                                                          to provide services,
Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and                  HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:
Social Committee,
                                                                                            Article 1
Whereas economic, social and cultural considerations              A Community aid system for non-documentary cinema
require that the Community should have a healthy audio-           and television co-productions is hereby established.
visual industry;
                                                                  Aid shall be directed to the promotion and development
Whereas demand from the audiovisual media for non-                of the European audiovisual programme industry to
documentary programmes is already on the increase and             enable it to meet the growing demand for material
is likely to increase even further; whereas the oppor-            attractive to a mass audience.
tunities created by the expansion of the audiovisual
media can best be exploited by promoting and
                                                                  One of the objectives of the aid scheme shall be to foster
developing the European programme industry to make it
                                                                  co-productions involving partners from Community
stronger and more competitive;
                                                                  countries whose output of cinema and/or television
                                                                  productions is small in comparison to that of other
Whereas a first step in this process would be to increase         Community countries.
the number of mass-audience cinema and television co-
productions involving nationals of more than one
Member-State, including Member States whose audio-                                          Article 2
visual output is comparatively small;                             The following shall be eligible for aid:
                                                                  — natural or legal      persons subject to the public or
Whereas the financing of international co-productions is
                                                                      private law of a    Member State of the Community
a high-risk undertaking which may be beyond the
                                                                       and engaged in     the production of cinema films
capacity of the partners involved;
                                                                       and/or television programmes;
Whereas since co-productions are an effective element of          — cinema or television directors who are nationals of a
a more positive trend, those meeting various specific                  Member State of the Community.
 ---pagebreak--- N o C 125/14                            Official Journal of the European Communities                                  22.5.85
                          Article 3                                2.     The production aid shall range from 10 % to 25 %
                                                                   of the co-production costs.
1.     Only co-productions involving at least three
partners from different Member States of the
Community shall qualify for aid.                                   3.     The distribution or broadcasting aid shall be
                                                                   determined case by case having regard to the nature of
2.     A co-production shall not qualify for aid unless            the co-produced material.
arrangements for its production comply with the Treaty
rules on competition.
                                                                   It shall contribute to the cost of making copies, subtitling
                                                                   and/or dubbing, and of various forms of promotion, as
3.     The co-production partners shall designate one of           indicated in the aid application.
their number to assume responsibility for administration
of the aid and its repayment in accordance with the
                                                                    It shall not, however, exceed 50 % of those costs.
provisions of Articles 6 and 7.
The Community, represented by the Commission, shall                                            Article 6
conclude with the person so designated a contract jointly
and severally binding all the co-production partners,               1.     In the case of co-productions primarily intended
hereinafter referred to as 'contract beneficiaries'.                for the cinema and those made for television by co-
                                                                    production partners which do not broadcast the co-
                                                                    produced material, aid shall take the form of an advance
4.     The contribution of each co-production partner,              on earnings.
from public or private sources, shall not be less than
 10 % or more than 60 % of the co-production costs.
                                                                    2.     The earnings of co-productions primarily intended
 5.    Community co-production partners may enter into              for the cinema shall comprise, in the first place, the
 association with one or more co-production partners                percentage of box-office earnings taken by the co-
who are nationals of non-member countries.                          production partners (the 'producers' percentages'), and
                                                                    secondly, the proceeds of sales to television companies
                                                                    and the video industry.
 6.    The total contribution put up by co-production
 partners who are nationals of non-member countries
 shall not exceed 20 °/o of the co-production costs.                The earnings of the television co-productions referred to
                                                                    in paragraph 1 shall comprise the proceeds of sales to
                                                                    television companies and the video industry together
                           Article 4                                with the percentage of any cinema box-office earnings
                                                                     taken by the co-production partners.
 1.    Applicants for aid shall apply to the Commission.
 2.    They shall produce evidence that distribution or              3.    The advance shall be repayable to the Community
 broadcasting of the co-production in respect of which               and shall bear interest.
 the application is made is guaranteed at least in the
 countries of which they are nationals.
                                                                     The rate of interest and the terms of repayment shall be
                                                                     laid down in a Commission Regulation.
 3.     Such evidence shall take the form of legally binding
 undertakings by film distributors or television companies
 to distribute or broadcast the co-produced material.                                          Article 7
 Broadcasting guarantees may relate both to public                    1.    In the case of television co-productions to be
 television companies and to private, nationally-auth-               broadcast by the co-production partners, aid shall take
 orized television companies.                                        the form of an interest-free loan.
 4.     The Commission shall define procedures for filing             2.    The loan shall be repayable to the Community.
 aid applications and shall specify the nature and form of
 the documentary evidence to be included in the
 application papers.                                                  3.    The proportion of the loan corresponding to
                                                                      broadcasting by each co-production partner shall be
                                                                      repaid one year after the co-produced material is
                           Article 5                                  broadcast by that partner.
  1.    Aid shall be allocated in two parts, one for the
 production and the other for the distribution or broad-              However, the Commission may authorize repayment
 casting of the co-produced material.                                 over a period of from two to five years.
 ---pagebreak--- 22.5.85                                 Official Journal of the European Communities                             No C 125/15
4.     Sales of the co-produced material to the video              Contract beneficiaries shall notify the Commission
industry and to television companies not involved in its           immediately in writing of any important fact relating to
production, together with any cinema box-office                    performance of the contract. They shall submit progress
earnings accruing to the co-production partners, shall             reports periodically. They shall comply with all requests
give rise to repayment with interest of a proportion of            for information or inspection at the place of per-
the loan.                                                          formance, in accordance with the terms of the contract.
This proportion of the loan shall be regarded as an                                          Article 11
advance on earnings to which the provisions of Article 6
(3) shall apply.                                                   The Commission may cancel a contract where one of the
                                                                   contract beneficiaries fails to implement all or part of its
                                                                   provisions or has intentionally or negligently supplied
                          Article 8                                false information in applying for aid or where one of the
                                                                   contract beneficiaries has failed to comply with the terms
The Commission shall grant advances on earnings and                of the contract regarding utilization of the aid, co-
interest-free loans to projects in line with selection             production schedules, submission of reports or
criteria which it shall establish and after consulting the         supervision. In this event the balance of the sum
multinational expert group set up under Article 9.                 repayable shall fall due immediately, without prejudice to
                                                                   possible legal action for the recovery of demages.
                          Article 9                                Where a contract beneficiary has intentionally supplied
1.     A multinational expert group is hereby established.         false information either in applying for aid or in per-
                                                                   formance of the contract, and has thereby obtained aid
                                                                   in excess of the appropriate sum, the Commission may
2.     It shall comprise two full members and two                  choose not to exercise its right to cancel the contract,
deputies representing each of the following: scriptwriters,        but may demand repayment of the sum wrongly obtained
directors, producers, distributors, cinema operators and           together with interest at the market rate.
television programme executives.
                                                                                             Article 12
3.     The Commission shall appoint the members of the
group from a list submitted by unions or professional              Appropriations to finance the aid scheme shall be entered
organizations which are representative at Community                on the expenditure side of the general budget of the
level.                                                             European Communities each year.
                                                                   Scheduled repayments shall be entered on the revenue
The list shall contain three times as many names as there
                                                                   side of that budget.
are full members and deputies to be appointed.
                                                                                             Article 13
4.     In appointing members of the group the
Commission shall ensure that at least one national of              The Commission shall report annually to Parliament and
each Member State of the Community may attend its                  the Council on the implementation of this Regulation.
meetings.
                                                                                             Article 14
5.     Members of the group shall be appointed for three           Contracts shall stipulate that the Court of Justice of the
years. The appointment may be renewed.                             European Communities has jurisdiction in the event of
                                                                   disputes between the contracting parties in connection
                                                                   with the said contracts.
                         Article 10
The Commission shall monitor performance of each                   This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and
contract.                                                          directly applicable in all Member States.