Audiovisual sector: cooperation programme with professionals from third countries, MEDIA Mundus

The European Parliament adopted by 484 votes to 16, with 25 abstentions, a legislative resolution modifying, under the first reading of the codecision procedure, the proposal for a decision of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing an audiovisual cooperation programme with professionals from third countries MEDIA Mundus.

The amendments are the result of a compromise negotiated with the Council.

The main amendments are as follows:

Aims of the proposal: in order to increase clarity, this Decision establishes the programme MEDIA Mundus for the funding of projects for international cooperation in the audiovisual sector for a period from 1 January 2011 to 31 December 2013 with a view to increasing the competitiveness of the European audiovisual industry, enabling Europe to play its cultural and political role in the world more effectively and increasing consumer choice and cultural diversity. The programme will also seek to improve access to third country markets and to build trust and long-term working relationships.

Specific objectives: changes have been made to the wording of the objectives of the programme:

• Objective 1 (information exchange, training and market intelligence) is to strengthen the skills of European and third country professionals, notably by: (i) improving professionals' understanding in particular of the operating conditions, legal frameworks, (including in the area of intellectual property rights) and financing systems; (ii) improving the level of knowledge of audiovisual markets; (iii) facilitating networking and the emergence of long-term working relationships, in particular through scholarships; (iv) supporting initial and continuous professional training;
• Objective 2 (competitiveness and distribution) is to improve the competitiveness of the European audiovisual industry and the distribution of European works outside Europe and those of third countries within Europe;
• Objective 3 (circulation) is to improve circulation and visibility of European works in third countries and those of third countries within Europe and to increase public (in particular young public) demand for culturally diverse audiovisual content.

Scope of the programme: the programme is addressed to European professionals and third country professionals. The definitions of these professional have also been clarified in order to identify clearly the potential participants in the programme.

Conditions for participation in the programme: each project shall seek to promote an international networking. To this end, each project shall have a minimum of three partners. However, projects with only two partners may be admitted where the necessary networking is guaranteed.

Comitology: contrary to the approach proposed by the Commission, according to which measures to be taken in accordance with the management procedure concern the selection of proposals in excess of EUR 400 000 per beneficiary and year, the Parliament calls for the procedure to apply respectively for proposals in excess of the following amounts per specific objective:

• EUR 200 000 per beneficiary per year, in the case of specific objective 1;
• EUR 300 000 per beneficiary per year, in the case of specific objective 2;
• EUR 300 000 per beneficiary per year, in the case of specific objective 3.

All other selection decisions shall be adopted by the Commission (under its own terms), providing the European Parliament with information.

Multilingualism: in relation to the horizontal policies that the programme will help to strengthen, the Parliament adds encouraging awareness of common values and multilingualism in the world.

Consistency and complementarity: the Commission shall pay particular attention to consistency and complementarity between the programme and other relevant Community policies, instruments and actions, in particular coordination with and implementation of the MEDIA 2007 programme and external cooperation programmes in the audiovisual and cultural sectors with third countries.

Report: MEPs call on the Commission to present a Communication on the possible continuation of the programme by 31 January 2012 at the latest, instead of by 30 June 2012.

Annexes: some modifications were also made to the annex to the proposal in terms of its composition and clarity.