EU MEDIA Programme extended to candidate countries 

The Commission has adopted Decisions enabling 8 candidate countries to participate in its MEDIA Programme (2001-2005). The countries concerned are Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Slovakia, with Slovenia due to join soon too. Joining the programme means cinema professionals in these countries and their audiovisual industries will be able to develop, distribute and promote their work, and participate in training measures.

The Programme is due to start in these countries already this year or otherwise in 2003. Each new country participating in Media will make a financial contribution to the programme, via both its national budget and via the PHARE Programme. The procedures for participation will be the same as those applicable to those in the Member States.

A recent study by the European Audiovisual Observatory showed that films from the CEEC countries have a market share of just 0.054% in the EU.