Towards a better distribution of European films in the internal market and the candidate countries

In its own-initiative report drafted by Luckas VANDER TAELEN (Greens/EFA, B), Parliament voted 438 to 57 with 37 abstentions in favour of an integrated plan to improve the circulation of European films. (Please refer to previous text). Parliament called on the Commission to pursue a consistent Community policy on the film industry, particularly as regards its cultural/industrial incentive policy, on the one hand and its approach to State aid to the industry under its competition policy on the other, with the aim of improving the audiovisual industry's competitiveness and of safeguarding cultural diversity. The institutions involved in the i2i initiative need to pay attention also to the infrastructure requirements of smaller independent cinemas which show many European films, the structural needs of European SMEs which produce independent films and are generally undercapitalised, and the structural needs of European cinema festivals, whose programming is essentially European. The Commission is asked to provide for the creation of a specific executive European agency for cinema and audiovisual matters. Parliament urged Member States, when using money from the European Structural Funds, to invest in the modernisation and expansion of art cinemas in economically disadvantaged regions, in order to highlight the European film heritage. Educational curricula at primary and secondary level should devote sufficient attention to developing the visual faculty, so that young people learn to adopt a more critical approach to material in the visual media and are more open to a wide diversity of film cultures. Parliament called for a budget heading for the restoration of film works which are of great social and artistic significance and represent a valuable heritage for the European Union.�