A co-production treaty is not a bureaucratic formality. It is the quiet architecture beneath the films that carry European memory, language, and landscape to audiences across the continent and beyond.
How the framework was born
Europe’s film industries have always been fragile. They face competition from large commercial markets, and they carry the weight of dozens of languages, histories, and artistic traditions. The foundational legal instrument, the European Convention on Cinematographic Co-Production, opened for signature in 1992, came into force in 1994, and has been signed by 43 European countries. That network established something remarkable: a shared legal ground on which producers from different nations could build a single film together and have it recognised as a legitimate national work in each partner country.
By providing a platform to make cinematographic co-productions more systematic and easier to construct, the 1992 Convention’s contribution to the co-production arena, and therefore to European cinema as a whole, has been fundamental to its success. The convention did not simply reduce paperwork. It gave smaller countries, with smaller film budgets, a way to participate in larger, more ambitious projects. It rewarded collaboration as a cultural act.
The convention functions via a points system that allows a film to be defined as European and therefore access the benefits of the convention. Those benefits are not trivial. They include access to national film funds, television investment requirements, and the EU’s own support mechanisms.
What being “European” means for a film
The question of whether a film is European carries real consequences. The importance of being considered European is emphasised, making it possible for a film to benefit from EU broadcast and VoD quotas under the Audiovisual Media Services Directive. Streaming platforms operating in Europe must meet content quotas, and officially recognised co-productions count toward those quotas in each partner country.
European co-productions can benefit from a country’s film financing system, including selective schemes, automatic support for the domestic producer and distributor, and investment from national television channels. In France, for example, Canal+ and free-to-air networks must invest a percentage of their annual revenues in French and European films. A film that qualifies under the co-production treaty framework becomes eligible for this river of funding that flows directly from broadcast regulation.
Furthermore, research suggests that co-production films travel better than their national equivalents, crossing borders and reaching more international audiences. This is the fundamental promise of the treaty: not just financial access, but wider reach for stories that deserve to be seen.
The revision that opened Europe to the world
Since the adoption of the 1992 Convention, the landscape of European film production changed profoundly. New technology modified production, distribution, and exhibition techniques, public funding at national and regional level evolved, and fiscal incentives multiplied. The treaty needed to grow.
The revised Council of Europe Convention on Cinematographic Co-Production was adopted on 29 June 2016 and opened for signature on 30 January 2017. Its most significant change was one of geography. The revised Convention is now open for accession by non-European countries. This means that a producer in Latin America, South Africa, or Australia can now participate in an officially recognised European co-production under a single legal framework, rather than relying on a patchwork of bilateral agreements.
In October 2018 the revised Convention came into force. Among the important changes introduced by this revised Convention are new rules on the maximum and minimum participation percentages for multilateral and bilateral co-productions. The convention eased the conditions for minority co-producers, reducing their minimum participation to 5% in multilateral co-production and 10% in bilateral arrangements. This lower threshold made it viable for smaller national industries to contribute to ambitious projects that they could never have financed alone.
Expert perspective on co-production treaty value
The legal framework for international co-productions is far more than a technical document. It is the foundation on which European cinema’s diversity rests. When producers from Portugal, Poland, and Greece share a project under the treaty umbrella, they are not simply sharing costs. They are pooling creative traditions, national audiences, and cultural legitimacy. The convention’s points system rewards this genuine collaboration. Films that emerge from these partnerships carry a layered identity that purely national productions cannot replicate. For the audience, this means richer stories. For the industry, it means access to funding, distribution, and quotas that would otherwise be unavailable. The treaty network is, in the most direct sense, one of Europe’s great cultural policy achievements.
Industry perspective, European audiovisual and film policy professionals
The MEDIA programme as the engine of circulation
A co-production treaty creates the legal and financial conditions for a film to exist. The EU’s MEDIA programme then helps that film travel. For years, Creative Europe’s MEDIA programme has been the key EU support for filmmakers, helping films to travel beyond their national borders and find new audiences.
MEDIA receives the largest share, a minimum of 58%, of Creative Europe’s budget. MEDIA’s budget for 2024 is around 186 million euros. A share is allocated to support film development through slate development or co-development programmes, but most of MEDIA’s money goes to support the circulation of European content, with distribution receiving the largest share.
Since 1991, Creative Europe MEDIA has invested over 2.6 billion euros in the film and audiovisual industries to support the development, promotion, and distribution of European works within Europe and beyond. Its long-standing support has strengthened the competitiveness of the sector and has contributed to enriching Europe’s cultural diversity. Together, the treaty and the MEDIA programme form an ecosystem. The treaty gives a film its identity. MEDIA gives it an audience.
Conclusion: the treaty network and the future of European cinema
The co-production treaty network is one of the most important and underappreciated structures in European cultural life. It protects cinematic diversity against the pressure of a global content market that rewards uniformity. It allows a Greek director, an Irish producer, and a Dutch cinematographer to build a film that belongs, legally and culturally, to each of their countries. Every such film is an act of European civilisation: a proof that our differences, gathered together, produce something more profound than any single national tradition could achieve alone. If you value the richness of the films that reach your screen, the co-production treaty deserves your attention, your respect, and your advocacy. Explore how this network shapes the art that defines us.
Discover more about co-production treaty
- Council of Europe Convention on Cinematographic Co-Production (revised)
- The Legal Framework for International Co-Productions, European Audiovisual Observatory
- Could EU’s New Financing Schemes Reshape the European Film Industry? (Screen Daily, 2025)
