EFAD has contributed to the public consultation on the Creative Europe 2021-2027 Interim Evaluation.

A success story and an irreplaceable support

As EFAD highlighted in its statement on its priorities at EU level adopted in Cannes 2024, EFAD would like to underline the crucial importance of the Creative Europe programme, the only one dedicated to cultural and creative sectors, and one of the EU biggest success stories.

Echoing the conclusions of the European Parliament Report adopted in January 2024, EFAD considers that Creative Europe needs to be reinforced in the future and to keep its unique focus on cultural collaborations, transnational cooperations, artistic excellence and creative freedom.

The MEDIA sub-programme is an essential instrument to foster cultural diversity in the audiovisual sector as the core objective at the very heart of the EU project that serves our shared values and contributes to wealth and growth.

MEDIA is a powerful symbol of EU originality and label for quality which promotes Europe’s values throughout the Union and the world. Implemented for over 3 decades, it has been delivering immense results on the ground with specific actions that are an irreplaceable complement to Member States’ ones.

 This is particularly the case for boosting and supporting:

• the circulation and promotion of European works in the European Union, across all platforms (cinema theatres, TV and online), so that all EU citizens can enjoy the beauty and diversity of European films;
• the creation of high-quality European co-productions, in cinema and TV, in particular between non-traditional partners;
• cross-border training allowing professionals to exchange, boost their talent and expertise, as well as work together;
• powerful festivals and markets and transnational projects to service film education and film heritage perspective.

None of these would exist without MEDIA. Its remarkable impact on the sector and the society as a whole is sometimes easily measurable (ex. films awarded in festivals) but also includes immaterial aspects: flow of ideas, transmission of European stories and values, EU influence…

MEDIA is an established brand, cherished by all the audiovisual creators’ community and a quality label that is recognised internationally. It has a powerful leverage effect for all types of projects in their research of public and private financing.

Looking ahead

EFAD and its members are committed to continuing to advocate for a stronger and more efficient Creative Europe – MEDIA programme, with creativity and cultural diversity at its core, and in particular for:

• A substantially stronger budget to help the European independent audiovisual sector to face the on-going challenges and develop new actions to ensure wider availability and promotion European works across the EU, in all areas and all platforms;
• Maintaining the artistic and cultural objectives at the core of the programme, including the interests of smaller Member States, supporting creativity and stories in different languages and a large variety of actors;
• Making better use of other EU programmes - such as the regional funds, NextGeneralEU, Digital Europe or Horizon Europe - to holistically support the European independent audiovisual sector and in particular the digital and technological innovations (ex AI, tech companies…), not extending its scope further to other sectors (ex. News Media) and avoiding dispersing the programme in too many experimentations (ex. Metaverse);
• Supporting projects initiated by European independent producers, audacious and innovative companies as well as emerging talents from a large variety of EU countries without prioritising commercial and market objectives;
• Strengthening the transnational actions and collaborations for a wider group of European talents and professionals, better promoting European works at international level;
• Collecting information about the use of AI by works requesting MEDIA support and introducing a transparency obligation on viewing and audience data (incl. TV and online) for the works supported by MEDIA;
• An improved governance and dialogue in full transparency with the stakeholders representing the European film and audiovisual sector.