Minister of culture Tõnis Lukas
Ministry of Culture
Suur-Karja ,
Tallinn, Estonia
[email protected]
January
Dear Minister Tõnis Lukas,
In July , the former Estonian minister for culture, Indrek Saar, sent a request to
the Swedish chair of the Nordic Council of Ministers for Culture (the ministers for cul-
ture) regarding a request to commence negotiations on the possibility for interested
Estonian parties to become partners of Nordisk Film & TV Fond.
The former Swedish chair, Alice Bah Kuhnke, responded on behalf of the Nordic
Council of Ministers in December , and informed the former Estonian minister
that the Council needed time to conduct the inquiry and deliberations necessary for
the Council to be able to discuss the request further.
As the present chair of the Nordic Council of Ministers for Culture, I wish to inform
you that the ministers have now decided not to proceed with the proposal and there-
fore we cannot initiate negotiations on the possibility for interested Estonian parties
to become partners of Nordisk Film & TV Fond.
Our decision is based on thorough considerations and on dialogue with the board and
the current partners of Nordisk Film & TV Fond (Nordic film institutes and broadcast-
ers) regarding the framework and objectives for the fund.
Although the Nordic Council of Ministers determines the statutes of the fund and is
the main contributor to the fund, the fund is not a property of the Council. The fund
is an independent actor with partners, and it would require fundamental changes to
the fund's framework if actors from Estonia or other countries should become part-
ners of the fund. At the same time, this would change the fund's objectives thorough-
ly and currently there is not consensus among the Nordic ministers for culture to ini-
tiate a further process to make these changes.
On behalf of the Nordic Council of Ministers for Culture, I want to thank you deeply
for the Estonian interest in the Nordic cooperation and in Nordisk Film & TV Fond.
We know that the Estonian film and TV industry has a lot to offer as an attractive
partner to Nordic actors in the industry, and we hope to see fruitful cooperation be-
JourNo - - Nordic House - Ved Stranden - DK- Copenhagen K - Tel +
www.norden.org
tween Nordic and Estonian partners in the future.
Best regards,
Joy Mogensen,
Chair of the Nordic Council of Ministers for Culture,
Minister for Culture in Denmark
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