Commission to rescue media project funds

Date: 30/10/1997

By Peter Chapman

THE European Commission has pledged to save a string of EU-funded film, media and culture projects which faced the axe after the European Parliament turned the screw on the EU's 1998 budget.

Senior Commission media official Spyros Pappas this week promised that funds would be found by redirecting cash from savings in this year's budget and by switching money from other areas.

“We should be able to scrape together the cash to fund these projects. We are not talking about vast amounts of money. At the end of the year administrations usually have some money lying around and in these cases we will use this year's underspend,” said a source close to Pappas, adding that a saving of several hundred thousand ecu on this year's culture budget could provide the main source of cash to salvage most of the projects.

In their first reading on the EU's 1998 budget last week, MEPs voted to scrap plans to fund film festivals, the Strasbourg-based audio-visual observatory and the EU's Eureka programme.

Commission officials admitted afterwards that film festivals might still be in jeopardy, due to the loss of around 2 million ecu used to fund small events showing a majority of films originating in member states. But they insisted that the future of the observatory was not in doubt. “The EU contributes just 12.5&percent; of its budget, with the rest coming from states across Europe, not just the EU,” said one.

Other potential 'casualties' in the Union's film industry budget line which faced the axe before the Commission pledge include a key EU media policy conference due to be held in the UK during the country's presidency of the Union, and studies on the potential use of V-chips to allow parents to control their children's viewing of violent television programmes.

The V-chip study was part of the compromise deal that the Parliament itself struck with EU member states over amendments to the 1989 Television Without Frontiers Directive.

Officials say both these projects are expected to continue, even if cash has to be prised from elsewhere. “It is a bit inconsistent of the Parliament to stop the V-chip funding when it was MEPs who asked for it in the first place,” said one.

Meanwhile, Euro MPs also blocked an allocation of 20 million ecu from next year's budget for the controversial guarantee fund for EU film production. They did so because member states have been reluctant to approve the scheme. MEPs risked losing the 20 million ecu if they went ahead and earmarked the money without member states' support.

Under the latest move, Parliament would be able to re-allocate cash to the film-boosting fund if member states belatedly approved it. The Luxembourg presidency has proposed a compromise 30-million-ecu scheme, just half the amount suggested under an earlier plan, in an effort to win over the doubters.

Some suggest the Parliament's tough stance on audio-visual projects stems from MEPs' desire to set aside money to go towards an EU employment package.

Last week's vote could still be overturned if Euro MPs who support the audio-visual casualties can convince enough of their colleagues to change their minds when the budget comes up for its second reading in December.

But a spokesman for Welsh Socialist MEP Eluned Morgan, a key member of the Parliament's culture committee, admitted that this would be hard and that projects would probably need to find the cash from elsewhere.

“If we didn't manage to get them to support us for the first reading, it is going to be even more difficult to change their minds for the second reading,” he admitted.