16/11/2013 - The main goal of the event was to illustrate the major opportunities for funding in the audio-visual sector brought by the new programme

Creative Europe, the new framework programme 2014-2020 of the European Commission for the cultural and audiovisual sector, has made a stop at The Business Street in Rome last Friday November 15. The industry section of the Rome International Film Festival has hosted the conference “Creative Europe (2014-2020): the EU Programme for the cultural and creative sector”, organized by MEDIA Desk Italia with the support of the European Commission, Mibact – D.G. Cinema, Regione Lazio and Istituto Luce Cinecittà.

Michel Magnier (Director of Culture and Creativity of the General Direction for Education and Culture of the European Commission) and Silvia Costa (member S&D and rapporteur of the Programme in the Education and Culture Commission of the European Parliament) presented the new scheme with Ewelina Jelenkowska-Lucà (representative for Italy of the European Commission), Roberta Mastrangelo (General Direction Cinema) and Giuseppe Massaro (Media Desk Italy).

The main goal of the event was to illustrate the major opportunities for funding in the audio-visual sector brought by the new programme. Audience attendance was such that two extra rooms had to be opened to accommodate more than 200 people, who followed the event in streaming.

Costa provided an in-depth account of the long process (18 months) required to develop the Programme in the Commission and Parliament. She passionately defended concepts such as heritage, the preservation of national legacies, the cultural specificities that need to be guaranteed, the need to negotiate agreements with other countries that can bring values and additional resources of crucial importance. After recalling the value of the audiovisual product, Costa dramatically stressed the decline in consumer spending on culture in Europe, except in the Nordic countries, and the need to work towards the regulation of major Internet providers.

Magnier illustrated the general themes and the spirit of the new Programme which combines what were once three separate programmes (Culture, MEDIA and Media Mundus). He explained that the total budget for the programme is 1,462 billion euros. Being just 1% of the total EU budget, it might be considered low, but it is nonetheless greater than the combined budgets of the preceding programmes (for 2014, 169 M€ have been allocated, of which 56% are designated for MEDIA). He then recalled that the final approval for the programme will take place next week and that it will be operative from January 2014 (the call for proposals will be available online by December 10).

Magnier then focused on the main objectives, which are to preserve and develop cultural and linguistic diversity, transnational circulation and the collaboration between countries, and to reinforce competitiveness in a sector that represents 4.5% of the European GNP and which therefore has significant potential for economic growth.

According to Magnier, the problems that the Programme must absolutely bear in mind are the limits of linguistic fragmentation, which must be overcome by encouraging dubbing and subtitles; the scope of the current digital revolution; easy access to funding and the lack of truly valid statistics that could improve the relationship with investors.