Friday 14 – Sunday 16 November 2003 in Taormina
Riunione di esperti promossa dal Ministero della Cultura italiano presidente di turno dell'U.E.
sulla riforma degli strumenti di sostegno all'industria audiovisiva organizzata dal Direttore Generale del Cinema italiano Gianni Profita
Meeting of industry professionals organised by the Italian
Ministry of Culture, president of the E. U., on the reform of support mechanisms for the audiovisual industry
Réunion de professionnels promu par le Ministère italien de la Culture, président de l'U.E. sur la reforme des mesures de soutien à l'industrie audiovisuelle
WITH THE SUPPORT OF THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION
INTRODUCTORY NOTE
1. The need to re-examine the support mechanisms for the audiovisual industry in Europe
In the coming months, a series of discrete events occasion the need for a thorough re-examination of the mechanisms in place to support the audiovisual industries in Europe.
The European Commission is about to present its proposals for the future of the MEDIA Programme; the current Programme will run until the end of 2006 and the decision to consider the form the Programme will take in the period, 2007 – 2013, has both a practical and a philosophical underpinning: in practical terms, the long lead time permits an unprecedented opportunity to reflect on the experience of MEDIA to date and to craft a programme that builds on 14 years of lessons and insights. In philosophical terms, the act of designing a programme that has to be valid for the next ten years compels us to re-visit the purpose, function and goals of devoting public money to the audiovisual sector. The Taormina conference features a discussion of the future of the MEDIA Programme in the context of the overall framework for the support of the audiovisual industry in Europe.
In the course of 2004, the Commission will be reviewing national support systems for film. This review takes place against a background of the introduction in several Member States of new fiscal mechanisms intended to stimulate private investment in film, and of new kinds of intervention that target different parts of the value chain, notably distribution.
A third element – and perhaps the most challenging – is the enlargement of the European Union with the entry in May 2004 of 10 new members. In many of the 10, the audiovisual industries, and especially the support structures for the sector, are under-developed relative to the sector in the EU15.
Finally, while the prospects and opportunities held out some years ago by convergence may have lost some of their lustre, the maturing of digital media and, in particular, the growing penetration of digital technologies (satellite and terrestrial television, DVD, d-cinema, broadband internet, ever-more powerful and more affordable personal computers and games consoles, third generation mobile, ever greater connectivity) create new opportunities for the creation of and access to audiovisual content, and new challenges for intellectual property rights (IPR) holders in relation to the management and protection of their rights. These opportunities and challenges relate also to the immense audiovisual heritage in Europe for which urgent, co-ordinated action is required to prevent the decay and loss, and to enhance access to and knowledge of the heritage.
2. Addressing the complex audiovisual agenda
The conference in Taormina follows the gatherings in Venice, 28 – 31 August 2003, and in Rome, 19 – 21 October 2003. The Venice meeting, coinciding with the ministerial seminar, focused on two themes: improving the distribution of non-national European films, and the challenges of digital technologies. In Rome, the accent is on the future of the MEDIA programme and on the issues surrounding film and sports broadcasting rights and their exploitation. Taormina, 15 – 16 November, has been prepared as an opportunity to engage with the complex of economic, legal and political issues thrown up when we consider comprehensive audiovisual policy: the role of broadcasters; the application of public monies, at national and Community levels, to support the audiovisual sector; the increasing prevalence of tax-based initiatives to promote investment in the sector; the protection and promotion of cultural diversity both inside and outside Europe, and the conservation of and access to European cinema heritage.
In order to do justice to these five discrete themes, the Taormina conference is being organised in five strands. Each strand will involve a small working group (about 30 participants) comprising representatives of the different countries and the different parts of the audiovisual sector. The national film agencies, broadcasters, national governments, the European Commission and the European Parliament have been canvassed to suggest the names of people to be invited. With the aid of experts – also being suggested by these bodies – the Direzione Generale Cinema – MBAC is drawing up a series of host papers to be circulated in advance of the conference. The conclusions that emerge from the working groups will be presented at a plenary; these conclusions, along with practical recommendations, will go forward to the Commission and to the European Council that meets at the end of November 2003.
3. The five themes
There is undoubtedly overlap between the five themes being explored at the Taormina conference: if this were not the case, we would be faced with disjointed, even contradictory interventions in audiovisual policy. The brief exposition of the themes set out in this note, therefore, is only indicative.
Enlargement: the over-riding context
The over-riding context of the conference is the opportunities and risks posed by EU enlargement. As with German reunification, enlargement alters conditions not only in the accession countries but in the European market as a whole. The twin challenge is how, on the one hand, to integrate the audiovisual cultures and economies in the accession countries into the wider European audiovisual economy and, on the other hand, how to address the industries and the public in those countries. The challenges faced by the audiovisual sectors in the enlargement countries are very diverse but the trend is for the public sector – broadcasting and subsidised production – to be weaker than the norm in the EU15. Historically strong skills and traditions, especially in film and in TV production, have tended over the last decade or more to be eroded. The audiences for indigenous cinema have tended to decline. To reverse these tendencies and to ensure that the audiovisual industries in the enlargement countries play a full role in European audiovisual culture and commerce will require a mixture of initiatives co-ordinated on a European scale and initiatives within and between individual countries; it will involve actions by the public and private sectors working together. The audiovisual policy framework now being developed needs to be able to rise to these challenges.
Theme 1: The broadcasters’ contribution to improving the circulation of European films
While the discussion has taken place in the framework of the review of the Television Without Frontiers Directive about the possible revision of the definition of a “European Work” (to focus more on feature film) and of the percentage of broadcasting time devoted to such works, it has been widely recognised that there is little scope for compelling broadcasters to acquire and transmit more non-national European films than they do at present. The broadcasters – for example at the workshop on distribution in Venice (28 – 29 August 2003) – argued that it was not their role to forge public film taste but rather to take their lead from theatrical distribution and box office and show the films for which there was a demonstrable interest. Therefore the focus of the discussion has been more on how to incentivise broadcasters to play an active role not only to improve access by audiences to non-national European films, but also to educate and build a bigger audience for those films.
In some countries, broadcasters already play a vital role in their national film industries, often as one of the largest investors in indigenous production. Also, it hardly needs to be reiterated that most people see films on free-to-air television. Most of those films – like most films seen in theatres or on video/DVD – will be US movies. The balance – in most countries and on most television channels – will be national films. But television acts as perhaps the most important vehicle for promoting an interest in cinema, not just by giving opportunities to see films but by giving space – on news programmes, magazines, talk shows and documentaries – to the achievements, past and present, of the cinema. It is through television that distributors make the public aware of new releases; film award shows – notably the Oscars and the national film prizes – are a staple feature of the television calendar.
Via programmes about cinema, audiences can be introduced to other cultures: it was partly through an appreciation of the work of Yilmaz Güney that the international public became aware of Kurdish culture and society. More recently, a film like Goodbye Lenin has engaged the public about recent German history and politics. Therefore the promotion of non-national European cinema is a critical way of building awareness across Europe of each country’s and region’s life and experience. This role goes to the very heart of the celebration and promotion of cultural diversity.
Therefore broadcasters have a dual role to play; one half of that role is to encourage consumption of a wider range of films and thereby support the objectives of national and European audiovisual policy, the other half is specifically to promote cultural exchange, cultural diversity and engagement with each other’s cultures. Neither part of this dual role necessarily results from market forces. It could be argued that in relation to this role there is a market failure that needs to be addressed through intervention by the public authorities at both national and European levels, and the likely form of that intervention will be measures to encourage as much as if not more than to compel the broadcasters.
The role of the working group, to be comprised of broadcasters and representatives from the public authorities, distributors, film promotion professionals and others, will be to take forward recent discussions held in Gdansk (20 September 2003) and to be held in Rome (20 – 21 October 2003) and to formulate concrete proposals for measures to enable broadcasters better to fulfil their role to promote European cinema.
Theme 2: The relations between national funds and Community resources
It is impossible to formulate concepts and proposals for the future of the MEDIA Programme without reference to the instruments and measures in support of the audiovisual industries in Europe at local, regional and national levels. Those instruments and measures, however, are constantly evolving in response to changing market conditions. Increasingly, national film agencies – notably – are discussing with one another how to enable the initiatives each takes in their own country to fit better with what is being done in other countries. It is the view of those agencies, charged by national governments with the promotion of indigenous production and of the audiovisual sector as a whole as well as other objectives (such a diversity, social inclusion, equal opportunities, education, training and the film heritage) that there is significant scope for increasing their effectiveness through better co-ordination between European countries.
The MEDIA programme, and other Community measures – for example through the Structural Fund, which frequently targets the audiovisual sector, not to mention funds in support of film in third countries – has historically been the site of the development of better ways to target and administer support that have then been adopted at the national level; this has happened notably with development, distribution and training.
As we look ahead, both to the remaining three years of MEDIA Plus and to what we would like to see in place from 2007 on, we will need to take into account developments at the national level, between national agencies in different member states, and between national initiatives and Community initiatives. The goal must be to achieve the greatest complementarity of measures in order to assure the greatest effectiveness and value those measures.
The second working group is charged with developing proposals and recommendations about how to advance these objectives, identifying the scope and the modalities for better co-ordination and co-operation.
Theme 3: European policies in support of the audiovisual industry through the fiscal lever
In various Member States, new laws are being enacted or proposed to create tax-based incentives for private investment in the audiovisual sector. In parallel, at both European and national levels, proposals are being developed to reinforce the banking and general financial structures of the sector, notably through the intervention of the European Investment Bank.
There is an active sensitivity that the European Commission does much to stimulate to ensure that these measures comply with European rules for the single market and for state aids. There is also need for sensitivity on the part of the European authorities that, in examining these measures, importance is placed on the policy goals of promoting a healthy audiovisual sector in Europe able to discharge its responsibilities for both economic and social welfare.
That said, there is undoubtedly a risk that fiscal measures create unwanted distortions and inhibit the operation of the market. The question must also be posed whether the dialogues between national governments and with the European authorities are sufficient to ensure that the fiscal measures adopted reinforce rather than detract from the overall objectives.
In discussions held in Dinard in October 2003 between French and UK industry professionals and national agencies, it was evident that the fiscal measures under discussion needed to relate to other arrangements to encourage co-production, the development of stronger audiovisual enterprises and the better circulation of films. Therefore, for example, the emphasis in the discussions about new fiscal measures being contemplated in the UK is very much on promoting stronger links between production and distribution, on simplifying the processes involved in setting up bi- and pluri-lateral co-productions, on more effective communication and exchanges of experiences between authorities and professionals, as well as more effective training of producers.
Key to the success of fiscal measures is the existence of an efficient banking and broader financial services sector able to provide the know-how and to create the structures required for the operation of tax-based incentives. Since the introduction of new tax incentives in Belgium, we have seen the launch of fund operations to manage the inflows of private investment. In the course of the six years’ operation of capital allowances in the UK there has grown up an industry devoted to attracting, placing and accounting for such tax-based investment.
The history of such fiscal interventions is not a universally-happy one with hard lessons having been learned in Germany and in the Netherlands and the risk emerging of the tax breaks being withdrawn; this raises the question of how the objectives of such incentives are set and how their results are evaluated.
The third working group will be charged with formulating proposals for how fiscal measures can most effectively meet audiovisual policy objectives and at the same time further single market and competition policy objectives.
Theme 4: Cultural diversity, markets outside Europe and promotion
The fourth working group links two initiatives: the protection of cultural diversity and the promotion of European film in third countries. The concept, as articulated by the European Commission in April 2002 during the Audiovisual conference in Madrid during the semester of the Spanish presidency of the EU, is that the issue of cultural diversity is not confined to Europe, and that Europe has a key role to play in the promotion of cultural diversity and exchange throughout the world.
The sphere of the protection of cultural diversity is currently focused on the creation of an international instrument under the aegis of UNESCO that will sit alongside the World Trade Organisation (WTO); the relation between the UNESCO instrument and the WTO has still to be defined, as does the instrument itself. The current uncertainty about the outcome of the Doha round of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) does not detract from the desirability of an international debate about how to promote cultural diversity.
Likewise, the logic of promoting cultural diversity within Europe – a principle enshrined in the Treaty of Rome and in the new Convention – extends to Europe’s relations with third countries that are Europe’s commercial and cultural partners. Beyond the classic initiatives of export promotion are bi-, pluri- and multi-lateral agreements aimed at encouraging cultural exchange.
The fourth group is accordingly charged with developing proposals for an effective “international” policy for the European audiovisual industries.
Theme 5: The European cinematographic heritage, its conservation and diffusion
This work of this group is organised by Italy’s Cineteca Nazionale in conjunction with the Association des Cinémathèques Européenes (ACE) and is divided into six sub-themes: the legal deposit of cinematographic works in the European Union (a proposal of the Italian semester of the European presidency), the application of new technologies to the conservation of and access to the cinema heritage; training of film archivists; education about the image in schools as part of an introduction to European cinema; the state of play of the European cinema heritage – what exists, what has been lost, and what the prospects are; the perspective for the enlargement countries: the film heritage in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. The general discussions will be followed by a focus on the Italian situation.
This working group, that picks up on work undertaken in 2000 during the Portuguese presidency, is charged with identifying common actions that could be adopted either in the context of the MEDIA programme or of a new, specific film heritage programme.
