EU: Culture Committee Backs Fund

The European Parliament Culture Committee voted on 24 September to allocate ECU 20 million for the creation of an Audiovisual Guarantee Fund, with the aim of boosting the Fund’s encouragement of EU audiovisual production. The European Federation of Audiovisual Directors (EFAD) has recently observed that there exists a huge gap between European and North American exports in this sector, a situation the Fund would presumably attempt to rectify. However, the creation of the Fund is by no means assured. The European Council has been unable to reach agreement and EFAD has called upon the Culture Committee and Jacques Santer to do everything in their power to secure agreement at the Culture Council’s meeting on 24 November.