Regulatory Framework - Cinema
Cinema
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 167 of the TFEU 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 and the second one in July 2010 (Second Report on the challenges for European film heritage from the analogue and the digital era) - Press release (July 2010). The Commission is currently preparing the third implementation report on the basis of member states reports.
The Commission has financed a
Study on a
digital agenda for film heritage institutions. The study ran from January to
December 2011. An on-line consultation on the preliminary finding of the study
was open from July to September 2011. A workshop to validate the results of the
study took place on 20 September 2011 in Brussels.
Full
final report
Executive
summary
The European Commission:
-
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;
-
promotes European standardisation to achieve interoperability among film databases and catalogues in Europe;
-
supported the negotiations between film producers worldwide, represented by FIAPF, and European film archives, represented by ACE, of a framework agreement setting out arrangements for voluntary deposit of film and film materials in European archives.
See
the framework agreement
"SAVE OUR SILENT AND OLD FILMS FOR THE DIGITAL ERA"
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.
State aid:
Commission consults on future film support rules
The European Commission has launched a public consultation on the state aid
criteria it proposes to use to assess Member States' film support schemes in
future. The criteria are set out in a draft Communication, on which the
Commission invites comments by 14 June 2012. The final Communication is due to
be adopted by the Commission in the second half of 2012.
Press
release - 14 March 2012
2011 - Review of
the Cinema Communication: Commission consults on support to film sector
The
issues paper and other information about the public consultation are
available here
The
contributions are
available here
Read the Press release - 20/06/2011
Communication
on the extension of rules for State aid to film and audiovisual production (2009)
Press
Release IP/09/138
MEMO/09/33
See also
Territorialisation study
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 Audiovisual Media Services Directive (Articles 16 and 17) provides a general framework for the production and distribution of European works, including cinema and TV films, applicable to linear audiovisual media services. For on-demand services Article 13 AVMSD provides special obligations in this respect.
