The European Audiovisual Observatory, the Council of Europe’s audiovisual information centre, is now under a new Presidency for 2016. The Czech Republic takes over from Montenegro which held the Presidency of the Strasbourg-based Observatory in 2015.

The Czech Republic is represented within the Observatory’s Executive Council by Lenka Holubova Mikolasova, from the Media and Audiovisual Departement of the Czech Ministry of Culture. She commented that the Czech Republic takes over the Observatory Presidency for the first time at a period when the Czech cinema industry can obtain significant help in terms of systematic changes in financing and incentive scheme administration. She concluded that “2016 would be a key an important year for Czech cinema” and promised an “active and dynamic” Observatory Presidency. A public media conference will be held under the Czech Presidency this summer in Prague and the theme of this conference will be announced at the beginning of 2016.

Susanne Nikoltchev, the Observatory’s Executive Director, thanked the Montenegrin Presidency of the Observatory for 2015 for their “extremely supportive and fruitful commitment” and looked forward to “reaching out to the Czech media professionals” under the new Czech Presidency in 2016.

The European Audiovisual Observatory produces reports and analysis of the audiovisual industries of its 40 member states as well as producing pan-European statistics and legal analysis. It has a rotating Presidency which changes annually and lasts from January to December.