European film professionals community will be looking to hear more concrete proposals about future EU policy for film and TV sector when Günther Oettinger, the European Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society, comes to the Berlinale.

Oettinger

Oettinger, who is responsible at the Commission’s DG CONNECT for the Creative Europe’s MEDIA sub-programme, is scheduled to give a keynote speech at the beginning of the Creative Europe MEDIA’s day conference on February 9.

This year’s event will be focused on „Innovative European film business models  - Thinking outside of the national box“ and will also include speakers from projects selected during the first year of Creative Europe in 2014.

Oettinger’s appearance will be anticipated all the more in Berlin since his public pronouncements to date have concentrated more on the current proposals for the Digital Single Market and copyright reform as well as moves to revise the Audiovisual Media Services Directive and otherwise been restricted to somewhat vague comments.

During an exchange of views with the European Parliament’s Committee on Culture and Education this week, he did not explicitly mention Creative Europe or the MEDIA sub-programme by name at any point during the 90-minute meeting and didn’t answer one MEP’s specific question about the purpose of the European Film Forum.

Logical

But Oettinger has tried to allay the concerns of several MEPs – and many media professionals outside of the Parliament chamber – that the division of Creative Europe’s responsibilities  between two Directorate Generals (DG CONNECT and DG EAC) would not be detrimental for the implementation of the overall programme and the respective sub-programmes

In a written reply to a question tabled by Czech MEP Petr Ježek, Oettinger explained  he had been „entrusted with the task of supporting the development of creative industries and of a successful European media and content industry able to reach out to new audiences, adapt to the digital era and thrive in the connected Digital Single Market.“

Therefore, he regarded it as „logical“ that the MEDIA sub-programme should fall under his remit, concluding that DG CONNECT and DG EAC are already putting in place appropriate working arrangements to ensure the smooth and effective delivery of Creative Europe and its successful implementation“.

Apparently, a Memorandum of Understanding is currently being prepared between the directorates to set out how the administration of the Creative Europe programme will be integrated.

Creative Europe – the first year

Oettinger’s appearance at the EP committee came only days after European Commission executives Michel Magnier and Lucia Recalde Langarica had also come to MEPs to give a status report on the first year of the new Creative Europe programme.

According to Magnier, Head of Culture and Creativity at the DG Education and Culture, who was responsible for the management of the MEDIA sub-programme in 2014, „continuity prevailed for development, distribution, access to markets and festivals.“

Langarica explained that training initiatives had received around 7% of the MEDIA budget allocated in 2014, development 19%, television programming and international co-production funds 12%,  and automatic and selective distribution getting the bulk of the budget with a 46% share.

„We had new schemes introduced, starting with audience development,“ Magnier told the MEPs, „and, to be honest, it didn’t produce excellent results in the first year, probably because the concept was not clearly set out in the guidelines. This is something we need to improve from this year.“

However, a new scheme for video games had resulted in „overwhelming interest from the sector,“ he observed.

Europa Cinemas

Meanwhile, Langarica explained that there had been a review of the cinema network action line and the collaboration with the partner Europa Cinemas: “We have had regular discussions especially to increase the reach-out and the circulation of high-quality works across the European Union at large, and especially in those countries where there is unfortunately a shortage of theatres and it makes the circulation more difficult.“

She said that talks were being held with Europa Cinemas to identify „innovative ways to make sure that certain parts of Europe, especially Eastern and Southern Europe, can also have access to these high-quality, independent works.“

In a reply to German MEP Helga Trüpel’s question about the support for film festivals, Langarica noted that the quality of applications last year had been „uneven“, adding that the selected projects were asked to have „very robust audience development mechanisms.“ In the end , 88 festivals were selected from 25 countries.

Moreover, she pointed out that few of the previous MEDIA Mundus projects had performed well in the selection procedure in order to continue under the new MEDIA sub-programme. (ends)