Regulatory Framework - Cinema
Cinema
State
support for cinema
The criteria for determining whether state support for cinema is compatible with EU competition law are defined in the 2001 Cinema Communication. The communication has since been extended three times and is set to expire on 31 December 2012.
2009
Communication on the extension of rules for State aid to film and
audiovisual production
See also
Territorialisation study
Protection of
film heritage
The EU is tasked with encouraging its member countries to cooperate in conserving and safeguarding cultural heritage of European significance – including cinema. (Article 151(2) of the EC Treaty)
The Recommendation to Member States on film heritage calls for Europe's film heritage to be methodically collected, catalogued, preserved and restored so that it can be passed on to future generations. EU countries are asked to inform the Commission every two years of what they have done in this connection. The first implementation report was published in August 2008. The Commission has sent a questionnaire to Member States and Candidate Countries in order to prepare the second implementation report.
Read
the Member States' reports.
The Commission also assists directly in efforts to protect film heritage, by periodically organizing meetings of the Cinema Experts Group, where experts from all film archives in Europe exchange best practices and look for common solutions to their problems.
The Commission also promotes European standardisation to achieve interoperability among film databases and catalogues in Europe.
Promoting
the film industry
- the MEDIA programme promotes European film in its pre-production phase (training and development) as well as distribution and promotion. The European film industry is an important part of the audiovisual industry. The European Union has devised specific and general instruments for its support.
- the 'Television without Frontiers' directive (Articles 4 and 5) provide a general framework for the production and distribution of European works, including cinema and TV films. Article 3i AVMSD has widened the scope of this framework to also include on-demand services.
