Romania

[RO] Promulgation of the new Cinematography Law

IRIS 2018-3:1/29

Eugen Cojocariu

Radio Romania International

On 11 January 2018, the Romanian President, Klaus Iohannis, promulgated Law No. 15/2018 on the approval of the Government Emergency Decree No. 67/2017 on Cinematography (see inter alia IRIS 2002-7/30, IRIS 2003-2/23, IRIS 2016-10/23, IRIS 2017-8/32 and IRIS 2018-1/34).

Law No. 15/2018 was published in the Official Journal of Romania No. 35 of 16 January 2018. The Senate, the upper chamber of the Romanian Parliament, adopted the document on 14 November 2017 and the Chamber of Deputies, the lower chamber, on 20 December 2017. The deputies’ decision was final.

Government Emergency Decree No. 67/2017 modifies and completes Government Decree No. 39/2005 on Cinematography and one of its main provisions is to increase the duration of the direct credit reimbursement for the production of films from 10 to 20 years. The new form of the law also aims at giving the Romanian film industry financial support to produce films dedicated to the centennial of the union of the territories inhabited predominantly by Romanians, celebrated in 2018, or films dedicated to well-known personalities and special cultural actions.

By prolonging the repayment period from 10 to 20 years, it is expected that the non-reimbursed amounts will be collected better due to the fact that the producer will continue to exploit the film, given the financial and administrative capacity of film producers to exploit their own productions under these conditions. At the same time, the amendment supports the correction of the situations created by the lack of correlation between the regulations in the field of cinema and the tax legislation regarding VAT, in conjunction with the state aid measures at national and community level, according to the explanatory memorandum to the normative act.