Costas Daskalakis, the MEDIA Programme's head of Administration, Finance and Pilot Projects, is to become acting head of the unit when Jacques Delmoly leaves the post at the end of the month.

Originally, Dr. Alain Dumort, head of the communication and youth department at the European Commission's Education and Culture Directorate General, was going to take over from Delmoly on April 1 (ScreenDaily.com, 11 February 2004).

In one of his last of his last public engagements as MEDIA unit chief, Delmoly opened a two-day Audiovisual Training Forum in Warsaw for over 250 professionals from the ten new member states joining the European Union on May 1.

The EU's current MEDIA Plus and MEDIA Training Programmes, which have run since Jan 2001 and continue until Dec 2006, have a budget of $504m with a brief to make TV, film and new media companies more competitive internally while trying to boost the international reach of audiovisual productions. A new support programme for 2007-2013 is under discussion