Between 2007 and 2011 they paid 250,000 Euro a year on average. Vassiliou’s spokesperson: “We support the go ahead of the projects. To permanently finance the private sector is not our job.”
The closure of Europa Film Treasures cost the European Union more than 1 million Euro. That’s how much the financing for the restoration project of old films to create a huge multimedia platform, where they view almost 200 films preserved in 30 archives from all over Europe. The portal, closed for technical and above all financial problems, is likely to be a resounding wasted investment for the EU Commission. Brussels, through the “Media” program, has disbursed money from 2007 to 2011 for a total of 1,239,000 Euro. “Practically we secured ¼ of a million a year,” explains Dennis Abbott, spokesperson for Androulla Vassiliou, European Commissioner for Culture to eunews.it.
After allegations from our website, Vassiliou’s staff started to reconstruct the story and piece together what happened. The project Europa Film Treasures dates back to 2007: Lobster Films, a Parisian company, specialized in restoring heritage films in collaboration with some of the most prestigious European film institutes helped in the recovery, restoration, digitization of films produced between 1890 and 1970. Taking a look at records and documents, it emerged that “the European Commission covered 50% of the project’s costs,” Vassiliou’s spokesperson observed. Thus, €276,000 arrived from Brussels in 2007, just as much in 2008, €287,000 Euro in 2009, another €250,000 Euro in 2010 and €150,000 Euro in 2011. Europa Film Treasures could have received financial assistance from the EU again for 2012 and 2013 but “Lobster Film did not make a request,” advises Abbott.
So what will the Commission do now? Nothing. “We support start-up projects like these,” reminds Abbott. “We do not finance private entities indefinitely; it is not our job.” Under agreements with Lobster, the EU would have helped with the start-up phase, after which Lobster should have arranged finding a sponsor and forms of financing by themselves. All things aren’t quite what they seem to be. Brussels reminds that financing started in 2007, before the beginning of the crisis. So, perhaps coupled with the difficulty of finding a sponsor for cinematographic products, which are not as enticing for the larger public as those within the website that existed, would have done the rest. “It seems though that they are capable of coping with the problem,” adds Abbott. The reference is to the message published by the Europa Film Treasures staff on the Facebook page by supporters on the platform (https://www.facebook.com/EFTfanpage). “Dear fans of Europa Film Treasures, EFT is temporarily unavailable for technical and financial reasons. We are happy to inform you that we are starting a new partnership and we hope to return soon.” A greeting from the Commission as well: if the project doesn’t take off again, it will have wasted 1.2 million Euro. “Anyway the internet site represents only a minor part of the project,” clarifies Abbott. “The largest part of the funds went to restoring and digitalizing the films.” OK, but then if the movies are no longer available and everything returns to being inaccessible like before the beginning of the project, the promotion and cultural value are less and everything is useless.
