Draft law on the Slovenian Audiovisual Centre in public consultation

Ministry of Culture, Slovenia,
10 January 2025, Slovenia

The Ministry of Culture has submitted the draft text of the Act on the Slovenian Audiovisual Centre, a Public Agency of the Republic of Slovenia (ZaSAVC) for public consideration. The draft law has been published on the eDemokracija portal. The deadline for submission of comments and comments is February 7, 2025 inclusive.

The draft law envisages the merger of the Slovenian Film Centre, a public agency of the Republic of Slovenia and the public institute Film Studio Viba film Ljubljana, or the merger of the public institute with a public agency. After the merger, the tasks will be carried out in terms of content, organisation and system within the framework of the new institution of the Slovenian Audiovisual Centre, a public agency of the Republic of Slovenia.

The bill introduces extra-budgetary resources taking into account Directive (EU) 2018/1808 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 November 2018 amending Directive 2010/13/EU on the coordination of certain provisions laid down by law, regulation or administrative action in Member States concerning the provision of audiovisual media services (Audiovisual Media Services Directive) in view of changing market realities. A key provision of the Audiovisual Media Services Directive, which has not yet been transposed into Slovenian law, is the possibility to impose financial obligations on audiovisual media service providers, which are now defined as an annual contribution to a public agency for the production of European works.

The bill also redefines the composition of the council of the newly established Agency, introduces a programme committee instead of expert programme committees (the number of members and the length of the term of office have been changed) and the function of a selector that the programme committee will be able to appoint for a particular audiovisual field. The bill also changes the decision-making power in the event of a disagreement between the program committee's and the director's proposals.

The bill provides greater opportunities to encourage investment in audiovisual production. The percentage of monetary reimbursements will increase (from 25% to 30%) with regard to the direct costs incurred in the territory of the Republic of Slovenia in the production and/or post-production of films and audiovisual works. The bill equates legal and natural persons from other EU Member States with those registered in the Republic of Slovenia who were not entitled to financial reimbursement under the current regime. The current regulation is intended primarily for foreign productions that fully or partially produce films on Slovenian territory.

https://www.gov.si/novice/2025-01-10-v-javni-obravnavi-predlog-zakona-o-slovenskem-avdiovizualnem-centru/