European commissioner for information society and media Viviane Reding announced the Commission would set aside the sum in response to a written request by Hegyi, Hegyi?s office in Brussels said.
The European Parliament and the European Council had accepted Hegyi?s report on measures necessary to protect Europe?s film heritage last year already, but a sum had not been named to support the project. Hegyi?s report recommended cataloguing, then archiving the films in a common European database.
Archives, universities and technology companies will be able to use the money to research the digitalisation of audiovisual materials through the Prestospace project. The other part of funding will be allocated through the Information Society Technology Programme.
Next year, a conference of film industry experts will meet to agree on the legal basis necessary for creating the archive.
Hegyi hopes projects to archive Hungarian films will receive their fair share of the funding available for the task.
Source: Hungarian News Agency (MTI)
