Xavier Troussard, new director of MEDIA

The new head of the MEDIA Program will work under the orders of also French Michel Magnier, who replaced Vladimir Sucha as director of Culture and Creativity of the General Directorate of Education and Culture at the beginning of this year.

Following the resignation of Aviva Silver as head of the MEDIA Programme, Xavier Troussard, who was previously acting director of the General Directorate of Education and Culture (EAC), will take over from him.

Troussard, who has a master's degree in law and administration, began his career as administrator of the Audiovisual Policy Unit in 1989 in the General Directorate of Information, Communication, Culture and Audiovisual and became head of the unit in 2002.

"What makes this project unique is that we try to respect diversity, enhance solidarity, cooperate and create a political experiment. It seems to me that it has a great role in the European Union as a tool in this process, above what the Member States can do, but not as an entity that has to capture an image, frame it and say that this is European culture," Troussard commented on his work in the EAC General Directorate. The new head of MEDIA will work under the orders of also Frenchman Michel Magnier, who replaced Vladimir Sucha as director of Culture and Creativity of the General Directorate of Education and Culture at the beginning of this year.

The new CREATIVE EUROPE program will continue to provide support for film development, training and distribution, as well as the launch of a new guarantee fund to facilitate access to financing for the cultural and creative sectors. The budget of EUROPA CREATIVE will amount to 1.3 billion euros for the period 2014-2020, 9% more than MEDIA and Culture combined. This budget proposal formulated by the European Commission must still be ratified by Parliament.

On July 17, representatives of the EU member states reached an agreement on a regulation that affirms the existence of Creative Europe and commits to closing approval by Parliament.