Audiovisual sector: implementation of a programme of support for this European sector, MEDIA 2007

The Council’s common position is fully in line with that of the Commission’s initial proposal on the MEDIA 2007 programme. With agreement found on the Financial Framework for 2007-2013 the budget for the programme has been set at EUR 671 million at 2004 prices, taking account of inflation.

The Council has also opted to continue with two provisions in the existing MEDIA programme.

The first is to continue using an indicative breakdown of resources in Annex to the Decision, broken down as follows:

-         Acquisition and improvement of skills approximately 7%

-         Development at least 20%

-         Distribution at least 55%

-         Promotion approximately 9%

-         Pilot projects approximately 4%

-          Horizontal issues at least 5%

The second is to maintain the current practice of using the “management committee procedure” in the following cases:

-         for training and promotion projects with a total Community contribution of over EUR 200 000 per beneficiary, per year .

-         for development projects with a total Community contribution of over EUR 200 000 per beneficiary, per year; and

-         for distribution projects with a total Community contribution of over EUR 300 000 per beneficiary, per year.

These thresholds are in line with current practice.

Concerning Parliamentary amendments, the Council has accepted most of them, albeit with slight rewording or minor linguistic changes. Taking account of the Interinstitutional Agreement on the Financial Framework 2007 – 2013, the Council decided to reject all amendments concerning the overall budget.

The other amendments rejected concern, inter alia,:

-         extending positive discrimination measures to Member States with low production capacity and restricted linguistic areas;

-         reducing the number of broadcasters in different Member States from three to two;

-         on subtitling; and

-         on media desks.

To conclude, the Council considers its common position to be both balanced and appropriate for the European film industry. It also considers that it has taken account of the Parliament’s and the Commission’s concerns.