The TTIP free-trade talks between the EU and
US continue to come under fire from a growing chorus of European
film-makers and EU Culture Ministers.
Europe’s film-makers together with colleagues from other cultural sectors have been rallying support foran online petition - www.campact.de - demanding that the negotiations be halted.
¨TTIP undermines freedom,¨ the petition declared. ¨the agreement opens the way for even more monitoring and surveillance of internet users. Excessive copyright regulation restrict free access to culture, education and science.¨
In an interview for ZDF’s arts programme Aspekte, Oscar-winning director Volker Schlöndorff stressed the importance of film funding for the future existence if European cinema : ¨Such globally successful films as The Tin Drum could not have been made without German film funding, and even such an American film as Death of a Salesman, with Dustin Hoffman and John Malkovich, was also partly funded with German subsidy money because it was a co-production.¨
Germany’s new State Minister for Culture and Media Monika Grütters pointed out that she had written to the European Commission to ask it ¨to name the people for the negotiating delegation, who are accompanying the text on culture and cultural affairs at the negotiations so that we know who is representing culture there.¨
As the fifth round of TTIP talks began in Arlington, Virginia, last week, Grütters joined a public discussion at Berlin’s Academy of the Arts on the potential threat to the cultural sector.
¨This is not about wanting to defend some fiscal trifles, this about do or die, about the identity of Germany as a cultural nation,¨ she argued, while the French Ambassador to Germany, Maurice Gourdault-Montagne, explained that it was now understood that the US negotiators were drawing up a paper to ask the European negotiating delegation to define what they mean by ‘culture’ and the ‘audiovisual sector’.
In Brussels, the EU Culture and Audiovisual Ministers to discuss plans for a future Work Plan for Culture as well as to hear from the European Commission about the current state of play in the TTIP talks.
France’s Culture Minister Aurélie Filippetti reiterated that audiovisual aervices must continue to be excluded from the free-trade agreement’s negotations and pointed out that 60 proposals in a road map drawn up at last month’s Forum de Chaillot demanded that cultural services be excluded from economic liberalisation and there be ¨fair competition and taxation¨ between the different players, especially by the digital platforms, in order to safeguard the diversity of culture.
During an exchange of views with the ministers on TTIP, Trade Commissioner Karel de Gucht ¨firmly stated that he will keep strictly to the mandate he was given and therefore there are no negotiations on the audiovisual sector.¨
However, a European Council press communique revealed that de Gucht also acknowledged that the US has ¨shown interest in a number of areas of EU audiovisual policy.¨
He pointed out that ¨no major progress¨ was to be expected on the talks before the US mid-term elections, but he thought it would best to find an agreement before the end of the year.
Read more: EU-US free trade talks under fire from filmmakers | News | Screen
Europe’s film-makers together with colleagues from other cultural sectors have been rallying support foran online petition - www.campact.de - demanding that the negotiations be halted.
¨TTIP undermines freedom,¨ the petition declared. ¨the agreement opens the way for even more monitoring and surveillance of internet users. Excessive copyright regulation restrict free access to culture, education and science.¨
In an interview for ZDF’s arts programme Aspekte, Oscar-winning director Volker Schlöndorff stressed the importance of film funding for the future existence if European cinema : ¨Such globally successful films as The Tin Drum could not have been made without German film funding, and even such an American film as Death of a Salesman, with Dustin Hoffman and John Malkovich, was also partly funded with German subsidy money because it was a co-production.¨
Germany’s new State Minister for Culture and Media Monika Grütters pointed out that she had written to the European Commission to ask it ¨to name the people for the negotiating delegation, who are accompanying the text on culture and cultural affairs at the negotiations so that we know who is representing culture there.¨
As the fifth round of TTIP talks began in Arlington, Virginia, last week, Grütters joined a public discussion at Berlin’s Academy of the Arts on the potential threat to the cultural sector.
¨This is not about wanting to defend some fiscal trifles, this about do or die, about the identity of Germany as a cultural nation,¨ she argued, while the French Ambassador to Germany, Maurice Gourdault-Montagne, explained that it was now understood that the US negotiators were drawing up a paper to ask the European negotiating delegation to define what they mean by ‘culture’ and the ‘audiovisual sector’.
In Brussels, the EU Culture and Audiovisual Ministers to discuss plans for a future Work Plan for Culture as well as to hear from the European Commission about the current state of play in the TTIP talks.
France’s Culture Minister Aurélie Filippetti reiterated that audiovisual aervices must continue to be excluded from the free-trade agreement’s negotations and pointed out that 60 proposals in a road map drawn up at last month’s Forum de Chaillot demanded that cultural services be excluded from economic liberalisation and there be ¨fair competition and taxation¨ between the different players, especially by the digital platforms, in order to safeguard the diversity of culture.
During an exchange of views with the ministers on TTIP, Trade Commissioner Karel de Gucht ¨firmly stated that he will keep strictly to the mandate he was given and therefore there are no negotiations on the audiovisual sector.¨
However, a European Council press communique revealed that de Gucht also acknowledged that the US has ¨shown interest in a number of areas of EU audiovisual policy.¨
He pointed out that ¨no major progress¨ was to be expected on the talks before the US mid-term elections, but he thought it would best to find an agreement before the end of the year.
Read more: EU-US free trade talks under fire from filmmakers | News | Screen
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