MINISTERS’ DEPUTIES

CM Documents

CM(2024)24

18 January 2024[1]

1490th meeting, 21 February 2024 11 Programme, Budget and Administration   11.5 Budget of the Enlarged Partial Agreement on the European Support Fund for the Co-production and Distribution of Creative Cinematographic and Audiovisual Works “Eurimages” for 2024 – Derogation for payment of Ukraine’s obligatory contributions by other member States Item to be considered by the GR-PBA at its meeting on 6 February 2024

 

On 22 February 2023, the Committee of Ministers, derogating from the principle in Statutory Regulation Res(93)28 that all States parties to a partial agreement must pay a contribution to its budget, approved the principle of the partial or full payment of Ukraine’s contribution for 2022-2023 by other member States on a voluntary basis (decision CM/Del/Dec(2023)1457/11.6).

This decision confirmed the approval of the same principle by the Eurimages Board of Management at its meeting on 9-10 November 2022, following a letter addressed in March 2022 to Ms Catherine Trautmann, President of the Enlarged Partial Agreement “Eurimages”, by the Head of the Ukrainian State Film Agency in which the Ukrainian authorities announced that they would be unable to pay their 2022 budgetary contribution to Eurimages due to the priority given by their government to funding the war effort and that the same was likely to happen in 2023.

By the same decision of 22 February 2023, the Committee of Ministers also tasked the Eurimages Board of Management and Secretariat with ensuring, in close co-ordination with the relevant services of the Council of Europe, that the Ukrainian participation in Eurimages’ activities would not be in any way undermined by the application of Article 13.1 of Eurimages’ Financial Regulations[2] which would have otherwise resulted in the freezing of Eurimages’ support for Ukraine as from July 2023.

As of today, the decision of the Committee of Ministers of 22 February 2022 has been fully implemented by the Eurimages Board of Management and Secretariat. As a result, the Ukrainian contribution to the 2022 budget of Eurimages has been paid in its entirety, as well as 44% of the contribution to the 2023 budget. This includes a partial payment made by the Ukrainian authorities at the end of 2023.

On 30 November 2023, the Head of the Ukrainian State Film Agency addressed a further letter to the Board of Management and the President of Eurimages, requesting that the principle of the partial or full payment of Ukraine’s contribution for 2022-2023 by other member States on a voluntary basis be extended to the budgetary contribution for 2024.

On 4 December 2023, the Board of Management of Eurimages decided to accept the request made by the Ukrainian authorities and tasked the Eurimages Secretariat with raising the issue with the Secretariat of the Committee of Ministers with a view to requesting a formal decision.

Should the Committee of Ministers approve the extension to 2024 of the principle of the partial or full payment of Ukraine’s contribution by other member States on a voluntary basis, it is also invited to task the Eurimages Board of Management and Secretariat with ensuring, in close co-ordination with the relevant services of the Council of Europe, that any remaining balance of payments made as contributions to the 2022 and 2023 budgets of Eurimages be used to partially cover the Ukrainian contribution to the 2024 budget of the Fund.