mr president i could not agree more with what ms hieronymi has said and those ten years of working together with her and with other members of the committee on culture and education were very efficient and from a personal point of view very enriching
so thanks to you all from whatever parties who have really been working for culture to become important and culture to be able to speak to the people
i am very glad that parliament made some proposals on the report which are clarifications and simplifications so they improved the proposal which i had put on the table
as you know the preparatory action media international has been the basis in order to develop media mundus and in this context i am also grateful to parliament for giving me eur two million in two thousand and eight and eur five million in two thousand and nine to finance preparatory action
media mundus will start in twenty eleven and will follow on from media international
it aims at strengthening cultural and commercial relations between european film industry professionals and those from all over the world
the concept of media mundus is new ambitious and innovative because it promotes cooperation between professionals which is not done normally by european programmes and unlike existing programmes it is also based on mutual benefit not only for our film-makers but also for film-makers from third countries in different fields
the first one is training including trainees and trainers from european and third countries
it will improve access to third-country markets and build trust and long-term commercial relationships this is normal
when you have been sitting together at school training for the film industry with somebody from asia somebody from africa or from the americas it is clear that later on in your professional life you have an impetus to work together
that is also why we support the organisation of forums for international co-productions
we train them together and then we expect those professionals start to work together
so we need the forums for international co-productions
then we have to improve the distribution circulation and visibility of european audiovisual arts in third countries
that is always a win-win situation for people from third countries within europe
here is a very good example of a europe which is not a fortress europe but an open europe a europe which gives which takes which shares
we have to improve public demand for culturally diverse audiovisual content which will be very important so we have to get the youth the young public most of all to see european films
i am very confident that media mundus will increase consumer choice so that people will have the possibility to watch european films
it will bring cultural diversity to european markets by getting more quality films from smaller markets outside europe into europe and it will give a chance to european films on the international market
so it will create new business opportunities for professionals from europe and around the globe
this is of course a very important economic contribution
it is a question of competitiveness but it is most of all a question of cultural diversity our cultural diversity which is our most precious good and the cultural diversity of those who live in other continents which is their most special good
to share those is a wonderful chance which will be built up by media mundus
