On Tuesday May 17 at 5 p.m. Unifrance received European Culture Ministers at a "Flavors of the World" cocktail party featuring a tasting of fine wines from Bordeaux.
Culture Ministers from Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland and Sweden were joined at the reception by Christina Weiss, Germany's Minister of Culture, Fadila Laanan, Belgium's Minister of Culture, Jean-Louis Schiltz, Luxembourg's Deputy Minister of Communication and Petra Smolikova, the Czech Republic's Deputy Minister of Culture.
During the day, eighteen European Ministers of Culture and Audiovisual Media, along with film professionals and directors of telecommunications companies invited by Viviane Reding, the European Commissioner for Information Society and Media, and Gilles Jacob, gathered together as part of the third "Europe Day" to discuss the theme of "Film Industries of Europe and the Information Society." At the end of this day's event, the European Culture Ministers signed a "Cannes Declaration," the first of these declarations to be adopted on a European scale, concerning the downloading of films from the Internet, and highlighting the necessity of raising public awareness of respect for authors' rights. The Ministers also considered it necessary to "facilitate the development of an online film industry," to "envisage financial mechanisms for the digitization of works," and to "stimulate the accessibility of cinematic heritage."