CELEX: 51985PC0800
Language: en
Date: 1985-12-19
Title: AMENDED PROPOSAL FOR A COUNCIL REGULATION (EEC) ON A COMMUNITY AID SCHEME FOR NON-DOCUMENTARY CINEMA AND TELEVISION CO-PRODUCTIONS

31. 12. 85                             Official Journal of the European Communities                              No C 351/37
 2.    Member States shall communicate to the Commis-                                        Article 13
 sion the provisions of national law which they adopt in the
field governed by this Directive.                                  This Directive is addressed to the Member States.
                 Amended proposal for a Council Regulation (EEC) on a Community aid scheme for non-
                                     documentary cinema and television co-productions (2)
                                                      COM(85) 800 final
                                                         (85/C 351/13)
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,                           HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European                                        Article 1
Economic Community, and in particular Article 235
thereof,                                                           A Community aid system for non-documentary cinema and
                                                                   television co-productions is hereby established.
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,                 Aid shall be directed to the promotion and development of
                                                                   the European audio-visual programme industry to enable it
Having regard to the opinion of the European Parliament,           to meet the growing demand for high-quality material
                                                                   attractive to a mass audience.
Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and Social
Committee,                                                         One of the objectives of the aid scheme shall be to foster co-
                                                                   productions involving partners from Community countries
Whereas economic, social and cultural considerations               whose output of cinema and/or television productions is
require that the Community should have a healthy audio-            small in comparison to that of other Community countries
visual industry;                                                   because of the structural weaknesses of their audio-visual
                                                                   industry and/or the limited area in which their language is
Whereas demand from the audio-visual media for non-                spoken.
documentary programmes is already on the increase and is
likely to increase even further; whereas the opportunities                                   Article 2
created by the expansion of the audio-visual media can best
                                                                   The following shall be eligible for aid:
be exploited by promoting and developing the European
programme industry to make it stronger and more                   — natural or legal persons subject to the public or private
competitive;                                                            law of a Member State of the Community and engaged
                                                                        in the production of cinema films and/or television
Whereas a first step in this process would be to increase the           programmes,
number of mass-audience cinema and television co-
                                                                  — cinema or television directors who are nationals of a
productions involving nationals of more than one Member
                                                                        Member State of the Community.
State, including Member States whose audio-visual output
is comparatively small;
                                                                                             Article 3
Whereas the financing of international co-productions is a         1.     Co-productions involving at least three partners from
high-risk undertaking which may be beyond the capacity of          three different Member States of the Community shall
the partners involved;                                            qualify for aid.
Whereas since co-productions are an effective element of a         As an exception, aid may also be granted to co-productions
more positive trend, those meeting various specific criteria      involving only two partners from two countries of the
should be given Community aid to supplement national               Community, provided that the language of the countries in
contributions;                                                    question is not the same.
                                                                  2.      A co-production shall not qualify for aid unless
Whereas such aid is necessary to attain a number of               arrangements for its production comply with the Treaty
Community objectives in the context of the operation of the       rules on competition.
common market; whereas the Treaty has not provided the
necessary powers;                                                 3.      The co-production partners shall designate one of
                                                                  their number to assume responsibility for administration of
Whereas Community aid should not be such as to affect its         the aid and its repayment in accordance with the provisions
compatibility with the EEC Treaty rules on competition,           of Article 6 and 7.
the free movement of workers or freedom to provide                The Community, represented by the Commission, shall
services,                                                         conclude with the person so designated a contract jointly
                                                                  and several binding all the co-production partners,
(!) OJ No C 125, 22. 5. 1985. p. 13.                              hereinafter referred to as 'contract beneficiaries'.
 ---pagebreak--- No C 351/38                             Official Journal of the European Communities                                  31. 12. 85
4.     The contribution of each co-production partner,             secondly, the proceeds of sales to television companies and
from public or private sources, shall not be less than 10 %        the video industry.
or more than 60 % of the co-production costs.
                                                                   The earnings of the television co-productions referred to in
5.     Community co-production partners may enter into             paragraph 1 shall comprise the proceeds of sales to
association with one or more co-production partners who            television companies and the video industry together with
are nationals of non-member countries.                             the percentage of any cinema box-office earnings taken by
                                                                   the co-production partners.
6.    The total contribution put up by co-production
partners who are nationals of non-member countries shall           3.     The advance shall be repayable to the Community
not exceed 30 % of the co-production costs.                        and shall bear interest.
                                                                   The rate of interest and the terms of repayment shall be laid
                           Article 4                               down in a Commission Regulation.
1.    Applicants for aid shall apply to the Commission.                                       Article 7
At the same time they shall inform the relevant national
                                                                   1.     In the case of television co-productions to be
authorities of their application and its contents.
                                                                   broadcast by the co-production partners, the proportion of
2.    They shall produce evidence that distribution or             aid corresponding to broadcasting by each co-production
broadcasting of the co-production in respect of which the          partner shall take the form of interest-free loan repayable
application is made is guaranteed at least in the countries of     to the Community.
which they are nationals.                                          2.     The loan to each co-production partner shall be
3.    Such evidence shall take the form of legally binding         repaid one year after the co-produced material is broadcast
undertakings by film distributors or television companies          by that partner.
to distribute or broadcast the co-produced material.               However, the Commission may authorize repayment over
Broadcasting guarantees may relate both to public                  a period of from two to five years.
television companies and to private, nationally authorized         3.     Sales of the co-produced material to the video
television companies.                                              industry and to television companies not involved in its
4.    The Commission shall define procedures for filding           production, together with any cinema box-office earnings
aid applications and shall specify the nature and form of the      accruing to the co-production partners, shall give rise to
documentary evidence to be included in the application             repayment with interest of a proportion of the loan.
papers.                                                            This proportion of the loan shall be regarded as an advance
                                                                   on earnings to which the provisions of Article 6 (3) shall
                                                                   apply.
                           Article 5
1.    Aid shall be allocated in two parts, one for the                                        Article 8
production and the other for the distribution or broadcast-
ing of the co-produced material.                                   The Commission shall grant advances on earnings and
                                                                   interest-free loans to projects in line with selection criteria
2.    The production aid shall range from 10 % to 25 % of          which it shall establish and after consulting the multi-
the co-production costs.                                           national expert group set up under Article 9.
3.     The distribution or broadcasting aid shall be
determined case by case having regard to the nature of the                                    Article 9
co-produced material.
                                                                   1.     A multinational expert group is hereby established.
It shall contribute to the cost of making copies, sub-titling
and/or dubbing, and of various forms of promotion, as              2.     It shall comprise two full members and two deputies
indicated in the aid application.                                  representing each of the following: scriptwriters, directors,
                                                                   producers, distributors, cinema operators and television
It shall not, however, exceed 50 % of those costs.                 programme executives.
                                                                   3.     The Commission shall appoint the members of the
                           Article 6                               group, after consulting the relevant national authorities,
                                                                   from a list submitted by the unions or professional
1.    In the case of co-productions primarily intended for         organizations which are most representative at Community
the cinema and those made for television by co-production          level.
partners which do not broadcast the co-produced material,
                                                                   The above list shall contain three times as many names as
aid shall take the form of an advance on earnings.
                                                                   there are full members and deputies to be appointed.
2.    The earnings of co-productions primarily intended
                                                                   In addition, however, the Commission may appoint
for the cinema shall comprise in the first place, the
                                                                   suitably qualified leading figures at any time.
percentage of box-office earnings taken by the co-
production partners (the 'producers' percentage'), and            4.      In appointing members of the group the Commission
 ---pagebreak--- 31. 12. 85                               Official Journal of the European Communities                              No C 351/39
shall ensure that at least one national of each Member State        Where a contract beneficiary has intentionally supplied
of the Community may attend its meetings.                           false information either in applying for aid or in
                                                                    performance of the contract, and has thereby obtained aid
5.    Members of the group shall be appointed for three             in excess of the appropriate sum, the Commission may
years. The appointment may be renewed.                              choose not to exercise its right to cancel the contract, but
                                                                    may demand repayment of the sum wrongly obtained
                           Article 10                               together with interest at the market rate.
The Commission shall monitor performance of each                                             Article 12
contract.
                                                                    Appropriations to finance the aid scheme shall be entered
Contract beneficiaries shall notify the Commission                  on the expenditure side of the general budget of the
immediately in writing of any important fact relating to            European Communities each year.
performance of the contract. They shall submit progress
reports periodically. They shall comply with all requests           Scheduled repayments shall be entered on the revenue side
for information or inspection at the place of performance,          of that budget.
in accordance with the terms of the contract.
                                                                                             Article 13
                           Article 11                               The Commission shall report annually to Parliament and
                                                                    the Council on the implementation of this Regulation.
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 false                                Article 14
information in applying for aid or where one of the contract
                                                                    Contracts shall stipulate that the Court of Justice of the
beneficiaries has failed to comply with the terms of the
                                                                    European Communities has jurisdiction in the event of
contract regarding utilization of the aid, co-production
                                                                    disputes between the contracting parties in connection with
schedules, submission of reports or supervision. In this
                                                                    the said contracts.
event the balance of the sum repayable shall fall due
immediately, without prejudice to possible legal action for         This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly
the recovery of damages.                                            applicable in all Member States.