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AUDIOVISUAL Europe

The Bolkestein Directive: Spare an entire sector?

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Deemed too ultra-liberal, the Bolkestein Directive guarantees the free circulation of all services across the EU (on the condition that the service provider conform to the laws of the country of origin) and will be put before the European Parliament on February 17 in Strasbourg.

Although this directive does not clash with the Television Without Borders Directive (soon to be re-baptised the Media and Audiovisual Services Directive), it does affect certain relative aspects of the media (ownership and licences), public aid and tax benefits for film production. Particularly problematic for film professionals is the fact that Bolkestein contests the principal of territoriality (i.e., that many countries base their aid on a percentage of spending in their own territory). The Culture Commission of the European Parliament proposed to remove from the Bolkestein Directive, in its entirety, the film and audiovisual sector – both public and private services, regardless of their method of transmission (television, telephones, etc.).

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Recently, this cultural proposition was adopted by other Parliamentary commissions (most notably, by the important, from an economic perspective, Commission for the Internal Market) although discussions were at times "sharp". Will the Bolkestein Directive accept a sector exception? We shall have the response in a few days.

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(Translated from French)

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