Plans to double aid for European film industry
By Lisbeth Kirk
The EU’s Culture Commissioner Viviane Reding has announced plans to double future EU spending on the European film and audio-visual industry.
Speaking at the 61st Venice International Film Festival, Ms Reding presented the package "Media 2007" under which the industry could expect to see the EU budget grow from some 500 million euro to over 1 billion euro.
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The primary aim of the program is to double the number of films shown outside their country of origin, Ms Reding said.
"It is going to be one of the essential and strong policies to preserve cultural identity in Europe", she was quoted saying by AFP.
The European industry has a domestic market-share of only 40 percent for television fiction, roughly 30 percent for cinema and just 20 percent for video.
Ms Reding however warned that the finance ministers of the European Union would possibly oppose her planned cultural boost.
Her appearance at the film festival was combined with participation in an informal meeting of culture ministers from several European states invited to the Venice festival by their Italian counterpart Giuliano Urbani.
Viviane Reding is set to continue as Luxembourg’s Commissioner in the new EU Commission but with responsibility for Information Society and Media.
Slovakia’s Jan Figel is set to take over the task as EU Commissioner for Education, Training, Culture and Multilingualism.