La Comisión Europea, con Durão Barroso al frente, se está planteando el fin del Programa MEDIA tal y como existe hoy en día desde hace 20 años. Por ello, doce organizaciones europeas del sector audiovisual han escrito una carta abierta al presidente de la Comisión Europea y recogen firmas para evitar su extinción.
El Programa MEDIA se puso en marcha hace 20 años y desde entonces se ha dedicado al fomento del sector audiovisual europeo. Numerosos fondos de ayudas a la producción y a la distribución y organizaciones como CARTOON dependen de este programa, cuya última edición tiene el fin previsto para 2013. Entre las organizaciones que luchan por la causa se encuentran ATC (Audiovisual Training Coalition), CICAE (Confédération internationale des cinémas d’art et d’essai), EAVE (European Audiovisual Entrepreneurs), EFA (European Film Academy), EUROCINEMA, Europa Cinema, Europa Distribution, EPC (European Producers Club), FIAD (Fédération Internationale des Associations de Distributeurs de Films), FIAPF (Fédération Internationale des Associations de Producteurs de Films), UNIC (Union Internationale des Cinémas).
En este link http://www.cartoon-media.eu/petition/index.php de la página web de CARTOON se puede firmar la petición.
Reproducimos a continuación la carta abierta (en inglés) destinada a Durão Barroso:
‘To our great dismay, the European Commission is considering ending the MEDIA Programme, whose actions are nonetheless essential for the sustainability and competitiveness of the cultural industries within and outside the Union.
We, the European professionals of animation film for television and cinema, are extremely concerned by the disastrous consequences on the economic and cultural level, which the calling into question of the MEDIA Programme will give rise to in our sector.
For 20 years, the renewed support of the MEDIA Programme has directly contributed to the economic growth and the intra- and extra-European competitiveness of the animation industry. Due, in particular, to MEDIA’s action in terms of promotion, production and distribution of works, as well as training, our companies and creators have moved from the stage of a fragmented craft industry to a globalized and diversified industry at the forefront of the most advanced technologies. This is an unqualified success due to a certain extent to the European Commission and its MEDIA Programme.
As a result, in 20 years, more than 6,000 hours of TV animation and 150 animated feature films have been produced within the Union, for a total investment of more that 3 billion euros as well as the creation of more than 10,000 jobs. The training courses on offer for animation film professionals are increasingly successful both with the students, the professionals and the trainers. All these actions contribute to an increased synergy between producers, buyers, broadcasters and distributors in Europe and in the world.
The impressive European creativity shows through at the many markets, festivals and co-production forums for television and cinema. In the animation field in particular, the MEDIA Programme has had a decisive impact through its additional networking actions, such as those run by CARTOON and by the MIFA/Annecy Festival.
Supporting economic growth and the development of an industry involved in the creation, production and distribution of television programmes and films for young people answers a socio-cultural need of utmost importance, namely giving our children life values that we believe are essential for their future within the Union. It is the Commission’s duty to strengthen this cultural uniqueness, not to weaken it. If this were the case, the children of the Union would again, like 30 years ago, become dependent for their entertainment on the supply of programmes and films from outside of Europe, and this to the detriment of families. Nothing could justify such a decline at this crucial time in the development of the European Union.
More than ever, the Commission must therefore continue the support policy it has been running for the last 20 years in favour of all the cultural industries in the Union including animation.
We categorically refuse the proposed abolition of the MEDIA Programme with its succession of disastrous consequences in the medium and long term, or any other form of administrative curtailment, namely the inclusion of the current MEDIA Programme within another of the Commission’s programmes.
Our claim is supported by the governments of the countries of the Union affected to varying degrees by the development of the animation industry’.
