MEPs give film funding plan a favourable review

Date: 02/10/1997

By Leyla Linton

EUROPEAN film-makers' hopes of progress on a 60- million-ecu guarantee fund to stimulate growth in the EU film industry were boosted last week when the European Parliament's culture committee voted to allocate 20 million ecu to the project in 1998.

Philippe Kern of the European Film Companies Alliance (EFCA), which represents nine major firms including PolyGram, Rank and Pathé, welcomed the outcome of the vote.

He hopes that this demonstration of support from MEPs will influence those EU governments which have stubbornly opposed the Commission's proposal for the fund for the last two years. The scheme aims to guarantee loans for small to medium-budget productions in case they fail at the box office.

But German Christian Democrat MEP Peter Pex, the committee chairman, warned that the Parliament's budget committee would probably scrap the allocation for the guarantee fund as it had no legal basis.

Pex had favoured proposals tabled by Welsh Socialist MEP Eluned Morgan, the committee's parliamentary rapporteur on the budget, to redirect the first 20 million ecu to other cultural projects because EU member states were unlikely to back the film fund in time.

Morgan had suggested using a special pour mémoire budgetary procedure which would allow the money to be recovered at a later date if governments eventually gave the go-ahead to the scheme. But a small majority on the committee opposed this idea.

Despite this, Morgan will still go to the budget committee and ask for a guarantee that the resources will be found if ministers belatedly approve the film fund proposal.

British Socialist MEP Carole Tongue said the culture committee was “100&percent; united” in support for the fund, but there had been a “heated debate” over tactics.

“Support for this fund is incredibly strong. It has wholesale backing by the industry as well as the European Investment Fund and the European Investment Bank,” she said, adding that she hoped this would make the Council of Ministers realise just how important the scheme was.

Pex also insisted he was “very actively” in favour of supporting the European film industry - but in another way.

“I want a completely different solution to create a real guarantee fund outside of the whole administration. It has to be professional. You can do it easily with normal bank loans. If you do it properly, you don't lose money. Banks never give bad loans,” he said, adding that he would also want to see a richer fund.

MEPs and the film industry have been frustrated in the past by the lack of progress made by EU national governments in their discussions on the fund.

Germany is most strongly opposed to the scheme, saying it is neither satisfactory nor efficient. “We do not like this particular way of doing it,” said a Bonn government official.

The Netherlands, Sweden and the UK are also unenthusiastic, but other member states have expressed strong support for the idea.

But while the UK remains unconvinced that there would be enough support from the private sector, or that the project would offer value for money, the new Labour government has ordered a film sector policy review, to be finished by the end of the year, which will consider the pros and cons of an EU film guarantee fund.

As a budget issue, the proposed fund can only be set up with unanimous support from all 15 member states. Agreement was blocked early on in the Council and, as a result, discussions have never got very far.

The Dutch EU presidency in the first half of this year showed little enthusiasm for the project but Luxembourg, which is now at the Union helm, is more committed to the idea.

Kern still feels frustrated with the slow pace of progress on the part of member states. He cannot understand why they do not see the benefits of the scheme which, he says, would generate 300 million ecu and create jobs - an ever-increasing concern for the Union.

However, he has detected “positive” developments and believes the Grand Duchy is pushing the project.

Kern is heartened by the fact that French Culture Minister Catherine Trautmann recently spoke in favour of the fund in Strasbourg and that France and Luxembourg have held bilateral meetings with Germany to discuss the issue.

Kern believes Bonn might now be ready to show some flexibility, although a German government official firmly denied this.

The film industry remains hopeful that EU governments will adopt the Commission's proposal at the next meeting of culture ministers towards the end of November.

“There is a fifty-fifty chance that they will do so,” said Kern.