Vol. 463 No. 3
168 Mr. Lawlor asked the Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht the progress, if any, that has been made towards finalising the structures for the EU media II programme; and if this programme will become operational. [6565/96]
The Media II programme of the European Union is now effectively in operation with a total budget of 310 MECU over the five year period 1996-2000. This level of funding represents a significant increase over the 200 MECU which was assigned to the Media I programme covering the period 1991-95. For 1996, the first year of operation of Media II, the budget allocation is 60 MECU.
Media II will operate under three areas of activity which have been identified as requiring priority attention in the development of Europe's film and television production industry. These three areas are:— training, development and distribution. Three administrative bodies corresponding to these three areas of activity, known as intermediary organisations, are currently being established by the European Commission and these will be assisted in their task of selecting beneficiaries in the three priority areas by juries of experts to be drawn from panels submitted by the member states.
A Media II management committee, which is chaired by the European Commission, has been established whose membership comprises the EU member states and associate states which are involved in the programme. Ireland is represented on this committee by an official of my Department and a member of Bord Scannán na hÉireann/the Irish Film Board.
The Media II programme must take account of the needs of countries and regions with low levels of audiovisual production capacity and with less widely spoken languages, thereby ensuring continued support for individual projects as well as for small and medium-sized enterprises.
