Eurimages chief Jacques Toubon has distanced himself from comments he made earlier this week suggesting that a merger between the Media Programme and Eurimages may be inevitable in the future.

Last week, in an email interview with ScreenDaily.com, he said it would be "natural that the two initiatives will merge in the future."

Blaming a translation error, Eurimages now says that it should have used the word "collaborate" instead of "merge."

A spokesperson for Toubon commented: "there is no question of a merger but of a collaboration between the two programmes in Brussels and Strasbourg which might take the form of a contribution from the Media Programme to the Eurimages Fund."