Lagardère Entertainment, the leading French TV production group, presented on Monday in Brussels the first two episodes of its groundbreaking series

Lagardère Entertainment, the leading French TV production group, presented on Monday in Brussels the first two episodes of its groundbreaking series “Borgia”, in the presence of Androulla Vassiliou, European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth and approximately 100 European media experts.

This screening was preceded by a workshop gathering twenty experts from the Commission and representatives of Member States. The aim of the workshop was to share the experience and challenges of producing a high quality European production such as Borgia, which involves key partners including Canal+ and ZDF.

Borgia benefitted from EUR 500 000 in funding from the Commission’s MEDIA audiovisual programme in 2010 and will be broadcast in several EU Member States as of this autumn.

The workshop was also an important opportunity for Lagardère Entertainment’s subsidiary “Atlantique Productions” to exchange views with senior representatives of the European Commission and Member States about the future of the MEDIA programme. Lagardère Entertainment’s CEO, Takis Candilis, stated: “This has been a unique opportunity for us to discuss the prospects and challenges of the production of innovative European drama series“.

Klaus Zimmermann, Head of Atlantique Productions and producer of BORGIA, expressed his views on the importance of quality scenario writing and the making of programmes intended to address not only a European but a global audience.

Commissioner Vassiliou confirmed the importance of developing European productions with a clear transnational circulation potential, declaring that: “Audience building, in a broader sense, means providing high quality and innovative content, differentiating your product from everything else that is currently available. I can see that this is exactly what you are already doing with Borgia (…) I hope it will be a huge success in Europe and beyond and that it may encourage more European TV productions and more European storytelling in the future.”