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Nick Vivarelli
International Correspondent
@NickVivarelli See All
Mikko Mäntyniemi/Courtesy European Commission Henna Virkkunen, EVP of the European Commission responsible for tech sovereignty, security and democracy, made the trek to the Cannes Film Festival on Friday for the first time, just as Europe’s film community is up in arms over plans for major changes to the EU’s Creative Europe funding program.
On the eve of the fest’s opening, thousands of European film personalities, including Pawel Pawlikowski, Lukas Dhont and Rodrigo Sorogoyen, fired off an open letter claiming that the current plan to combine the EU’s culture and media strands under the so-called AgoraEU initiative will throw a monkey wrench into the workings of the Creative Europe’s MEDIA Program. It has been a crucial EU film and TV industry driver for the past 35 years, having backed recent Oscar winners such as “Sentimental Value,” “Mr. Nobody Against Putin,” “Flow,” “Anatomy of a Fall” and “The Favourite.”
Before meeting with the press in Cannes, Virkkunen took questions from Variety on a wide range of topics. They span from the AgoraEU initiative, which she said “will build on the success of Creative Europe,” to the EU’s Artificial Intelligence Act and the EU Commission’s regulatory approval of the Paramount-WBD Merger, the outcome of which “remains to be seen and could have an impact on the timeline or substance of the acquisition,” Virkkunen noted.
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The European film community is up in arms over combining funding for culture and media under the AgoraEU initiative. Do you share their concerns?I hear these concerns. Nevertheless, I think they rest on misreading what AgoraEU is about. It has been over one decade now that the funding going to culture and audiovisual has coexisted under Creative Europe. The combination worked because the logic was coherent: European creativity deserves European support.
AgoraEU takes one further step. It integrates the current CERV programme (Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values) and, crucially for this conversation, it creates for the first time a dedicated component within the MEDIA+ strand dedicated to news media.
That is what has sparked the debate within the audiovisual sector that has fought hard for its own identity, its own budget. The fear is that those gains will be diluted. I want to be clear — independent production, distribution, circulation, talent development — all of this continues, we will build on the success of Creative Europe and reinforce our efforts in the future in order to guarantee cultural and linguistic diversity.
But I want to make a broader argument, because I think the “merger logic” critique misses something important. A filmmaker and an investigative journalist work in entirely different ways. The value chains, business models and audiences of the audiovisual sector and news media sector are distinct. However, in 2026, they face the same challenges: the dominance of global platforms, algorithmic distribution, the erosion of advertising and an AI revolution. More than that, they share the same underlying purpose. Films, documentaries, series, journalism: all of these shape how citizens understand the world around them, how they form opinions, how they engage with democratic life.
Protecting a diverse, independent European media space part of our objective but it is also a democratic imperative. And this is the reason why we proposed the AgoraEU programme: to address the broader question of what kind of European public sphere we want to build for the future.
Regarding the AVMS directive, last time we spoke (in Venice) you said that this year the EU would “evaluate” progress being made by the directive that is in various stages of implementation across Europe. Has this happened? If so, what are the findings of this evaluation?Since we last spoke in Venice, the evaluation process of the AVMSD has continued. Following the launch of the evaluation in July 2025, the Commission has carried out extensive consultations, including a stakeholder workshop, a call for evidence, and a public consultation that closed on 1 May. We are now assessing the contributions received to prepare the impact assessment and inform the next steps ahead of the possible review foreseen in the Commission Work Programme for Q3 2026. As the process is still ongoing, there are no final findings at this stage.
The aim of the evaluation is to determine whether the current rules remain fit for purpose in light of market and technological developments, changing consumption habits, and the emergence of new players such as influencers. Issues under consideration include the visibility and prominence of European works, fairness in the advertising market, and the effectiveness of rules protecting minors from harmful content on video-sharing platforms.
Talk to me about the EU’s Artificial Intelligence Act. What are the key points that apply to the film and TV sector?The EU AI Act is the world’s first comprehensive legal framework for AI. Its goal is to ensure that AI developed and used in Europe is trustworthy, human-centric and respectful of fundamental rights, while also supporting innovation and competitiveness.
The most relevant points for the film and TV ecosystem are twofold.
First, transparency. Providers of generative AI systems are obliged to mark AI-generated outputs — including audio, image, video and text — in a machine-readable format and ensure they are detectable as artificially generated or manipulated. Also, when AI systems are used to generate or manipulate content — for example synthetic audio, video, or deepfakes — deployers of generative AI systems (such as professional content creators) that generate deepfakes need to clearly disclose that the content has been artificially generated or altered.
Second, the AI Act supports compliance with EU copyright law by requiring providers of general-purpose AI models placed on the European market to put in place a policy to comply with EU copyright law, including respecting the choice of rightsholders not to allow the use of their content for the training of AI models. In addition, the AI Act requires providers to publish a sufficiently detailed summary of the data used for training.
The AI Office is supporting the implementation of the AI Act through guidance, templates and Codes of Practice. Of particular relevance is the copyright chapter of the Code of Practice on General-Purpose AI Models, developed with stakeholders and approved by the Commission, which includes commitments to respect opt-out mechanisms and reduce the risk of copyright-infringing outputs.The AI Office is also facilitating the development of a Code of Practice on the marking and labelling of AI-generated content under the AI Act’s transparency rules.
I would also like to emphasise that Europe’s approach to AI is not solely regulatory. Europe has chosen a framework built on three mutually reinforcing pillars. Alongside the AI Act, the EU is investing in AI infrastructure through the AI Continent Action Plan and promoting AI adoption through the Apply AI Strategy, including in media sectors. This strategy supports the development and uptake of AI applications e.g. for virtual production, immersive storytelling and multilingual media services.
Is the threat of Trump tariffs on foreign-produced films shown in the U.S. still looming, assuming that it was ever to be taken seriously?At this stage, there is still significant uncertainty surrounding the announced tax by President Trump on films produced outside the United States, as no further details have been provided regarding its scope or implementation. The Commission will assess the implications once/if more concrete information becomes available.
Could the EU become an impediment to the Paramount Warner Bros merger?It is common for concentrations involving companies active in the EU to require regulatory approvals before the respective transactions can be implemented. The potential merger between Paramount and Warner Bros might have to be reviewed under several EU regulatory frameworks.
In particular, the European Media Freedom Act introduces safeguards to ensure that media concentrations are also assessed in terms of their impact on media pluralism and editorial independence, alongside existing EU competition rules, including the EU Merger Regulation and the Foreign Subsidies Regulation, which continue to apply in parallel. The outcome under any of these procedures, to the extent they apply to this case, remains to be seen and could have an impact on the timeline or substance of the acquisition.
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