92001E0580

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0580/01

by Salvador Garriga Polledo (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(1 March 2001)

Subject: Television without frontiers

With the 1997 Television Without Frontiers Directive up for review in 2002, new ideas are already emerging on key issues that the review ought to tackle, such as promoting the distribution and production of European television programmes.

The coproduction of television programmes involving a number of Community Member States has been somewhat neglected, and is a leading factor in moves to enable producers to encourage collaboration between public and private networks and actors and other professionals who routinely work together in the making of television productions.

Will the Commission say whether television producers have held preliminary discussions with a view to encouraging genuinely European coproductions involving television networks and producers and other professionals from the television industry across the Community?

Answer given by Ms Reding on behalf of the Commission

(11 May 2001)

The Commission would like to draw the Honourable Member's attention to the MEDIA and MEDIA II Programmes and to the MEDIA Plus Programme, which started on 1 January 2001. One of the aims of the Media Programme is to promote the distribution and production of European television programmes. The Media Programme supports European television productions (fiction, documentaries and animated films) involving no less than two broadcasters, and preferably more, in several Member States participating or cooperating in the programme, belonging to different language zones. The specific objective is to promote the movement, in the Community and outside it, of European television programmes produced by independent companies by encouraging cooperation between broadcasters, on the one hand, and independent European distributors and producers, on the other hand.

During the Media II Programme (1996-2000) the Community has supported in total 353 European television co-productions with a total financial contribution of 39 421 400.

The main organisations representing professional producers and broadcasters have always been consulted when the Commission has prepared the proposals for the various Media Programmes (MEDIA, MEDIA II and MEDIA Plus).

A reexamination of the provisions of the Television Without Frontiers Directive is planned for the end of 2002. In the meantime, the Commission will continue to hold consultations with the parties concerned in a spirit of transparency. In particular, a study was recently launched on the evaluation of the impact of the measures concerning the promotion of the distribution and production of television programmes in the European audiovisual sector. As part of this study, two public symposia will be organised in order to give all concerned an opportunity to make their contribution. In addition, at the beginning of 2002, the Commission will publish a consultation document based, among other things, on the results of this study. It will invite all the parties concerned to send it their comments in writing, and will conduct a series of hearings in 2002.