Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/595929
4 The Malta Film Commission has announced that the call for applications for the Malta Co- Production Fund 2015-2016 is now open. With a budget allocation of €1 million, the Malta Co-Produc- tion Fund provides loan facilities to film productions to allow local producers to contribute to their co-financing share of the fund- ing needed to make the film and/ or to provide economic support to cover expenditure for the pro- duction in Malta up to €200,000 (loan guarantee) or alternatively providing equity financing up to €350,000. Interested producers with a reg- istered audiovisual production in Malta wishing to co-produce a feature film, TV film or TV series (or mini-series), Animation, Cre- ative documentary or trans-me- dia and cross-media productions intended primarily for cinema release/broadcast and suitable for international distribution, can download relevant guidelines and application forms from ht- tp://w w w.maltafilmcommission. com/co-production-fund/ Applications are to be submit- ted to Malta Film Finance Ltd, as indicated in the call for ap- plications. Applications must be received by Friday, 5 February, 2016. LAbour MP Alfred Sant has said europe must avoid an increase of "viscosity" in its financial systems, citing risk-averse policies that de- mand banks to provide credit for investment but also prudence from extending money to certain indus- tries. "on the one hand, the eu is tell- ing banks and financial institutions to be proactive in their approach to proposals for economic expansion. on the other hand, the eu is also telling them that they must follow new prudential ways of doing busi- ness," Sant said, addressing the european Parliament during the debate on 'Transparency of securi- ties financing transactions'. Sant told the european Parlia- ment that he would like to have a greater assurance that this bill, necessary as it is, will not serve to further encourage risk averseness among our financial institutions. "banks have an important role to encourage more investment in the european economy and they are still expected to be behind the big investment leap forward that europe needs to take. Such a leap could falter if the eu seems to be sending mixed messages. "Most measures contemplated in the report go back to the banks. We obviously need banks and fi- nancial institutions that operate according to transparent rules that take full account of prudential concerns. however, we are also ex- periencing deflation. europe faces a huge investment gap. Transpar- ency and prudence should not lead to an increase of viscosity in euro- pean financial systems." Sant said that a fine balance had to be maintained between poten- tially divergent concerns. "The introduction of new systems of surveillance as with this report covering security financial trans- action markets, may be necessary. Yet we need to ensure that it is con- sonant with the economic needs of the times." maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 4 NovEmbEr 2015 News Your first click of the daY www.maltatoday.com.mt Agius calls on MFA to launch investigation Continues FroM PAge 1 Ger- man police on Tuesday raided the headquarters of the Ger- man FA on suspicion that the association failed to register the €6.7 million transfer to the organising committee in tax returns. Malta's Police Commissioner, Michael Cassar has not re- sponded to MaltaToday's query as to why the police have never investigated allegations that Mifsud had misappropriated funds when he signed the con- tract, and whether they will now start investigating them. The contract, signed between Mifsud and broadcasting firm CWL, saw CWL agree to pay $250,000 in return for exclu- sive broadcasting rights for the Malta-bayern game. The sum agreed, $250,000, was scribbled into the contract. Notably, the contract includes a peculiar secrecy clause about the contract's very existence. "The parties shall keep strict- ly confidential the content of this agreement and not make any disclosure thereof to any third parties," it reads. "In or- der to secure this obligation, the parties undertake to limit knowledge of the existence and content of this agreement to the board and the top level management of the parties". Although the contract explic- itly obliged CWL to pay the MFA the fee within two weeks after it was signed on 1 June, 2000, it only reached the foot- ball association's coffers in oc- tober 2000. Current MFA president Nor- man Darmanin Demajo – who was treasurer at the time – said that he had been informed that "$250,000 had fallen from the sky into the MFA's bank ac- count" four months after the bayern Munich contract was signed. Joe Mifsud admitted that beckenbauer was involved in the contract negotiations, in a court testimony during a long- standing libel case he had in- stituted against former Illum journalist Mark Attard for re- porting claims by Darmanin Demajo on how Mifsud had spent TV rights earned for the friendly. "Infront [a sports marketing company that CWL had merged into in 2002] had brought beck- enbauer over and proposed that bayern Munich come to Malta to play a friendly during the German football winter break," Mifsud had said. "Infront would pay the MFA for TV rights to the game." "Why would Franz becken- bauer personally travel to Mal- ta to arrange the broadcasting rights of a friendly between the national team and bayern Mu- nich that hardly anybody even watched?" Darmanin Demajo told MaltaToday. "In normal cases, the MFA would have ac- tually had to pay bayern Mu- nich to come over. "Why was that secrecy clause included in the contract? What's so secret about a friend- ly between Malta and bayern Munich?" he said that it is likely that england and South Africa – Germany's contestants for the 2006 World Cup – had also tried to woo the Maltese vote by arranging friendlies between Malta and their national teams. however, everything in both those cases was done above board and no financial induce- ment to the MFA was offered. Attempts by MaltaToday to contact Joe Mifsud about the case failed. The former MFA president had told the Daily Mail that he "has been out of football for many years and is not prepared to make any comment to anyone" about the case. tdiacono@mediatoday.com.mt Joe Mifsud admitted that German football legend Franz Beckenbauer was involved in the contract negotiations Applications for film fund open Sant warns against 'risk of averseness' among EU financial institutions Alfred Sant