By Brian Johnson - 6th September 2004
EU culture chief, Viviane Reding has revealed plans to double EU financial assistance for the European film and audio-visual industry.
Outlining the aid measures at the Venice Film Festival, Reding said that the increased funding represented “a very strong signal to the content industry.”
“From a budget of roughly €500 million, we are going to go over one billion,” she said.
The funding is part of a package of Brussels aid measures for the film industry called ‘MEDIA 2007’.
The Commissioner said that the primary aim of the package was to double the number of films shown outside their country of origin.
Reding, who is set to continue as Luxembourg’s Commissioner in November, but with a change of responsibilities, taking on Information Society and Media, warned that she expected strong resistance to the increase from EU finance ministers.
“We are going to have good allies in the European Parliament, but we are going to be facing big problems from the ministers for finance and budgets,” said Reding.
The Commissioner’s previous MEDIA programme met with stiff opposition from a number of countries.
Reding combined her appearance at the festival with an informal meeting with several EU culture ministers, invited to Venice by Italian Culture Minister Giuliano Urbani.
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