MEPs and MPs from ACP states discuss the effects of the Arab Spring, the EU hits the red carpet in Cannes and MEPs react to the arrest of the IMF chief.

The News: ACP Forum - Cannes Film Festival

In this edition, two MEPs react to  the arrest of the IMF’s Managing Director.

MEPs are meeting MPs from African,  Caribbean and Pacific states in Hungary.

On the agenda is aid to democratic  transition modelled on the Arab Spring.

The Cannes Film Festival is in full swing.

Despite US competition,  European cinema fights for its colours.

The arrest of the Managing Director  of the IMF in a rape case in the US

comes just as the eurozone  is going through a debt crisis.

We have the reactions of the French  MEP Jean-Paul Gauzès from the EPP,

and the Greek MEP Stavros Lambrinidis  from the S&D Group.

What is your view on Dominique  Strauss-Kahn's activities in the IMF?

He headed an organisation that hadn’t  dealt with advanced countries before,

He also seemed to be taking the IMF  away from the direction

that is, strict austerity without  any emphasis on the need for growth.

I believe his activities in the IMF  have generally been quite satisfactory.

He took to heart the questions people  in Europe were asking themselves,

and from this point of view  Europe has benefitted from the fact that

the IMF's Managing Director  has been Dominique Strauss-Kahn.

How could this scandal affect the  eurozone crisis? And specifically Greece?

To the extent that Strauss-Kahn’s  emphasis on austerity and also growth

was important in bringing some balance  to the negotiations,

will continue advocating the new IMF line  as presented by Strauss-Kahn.

The IMF continues to operate normally.  This doesn’t change anything.

I think he has improved coordination,  especially between France and Germany

whose approaches to the situation  were initially slightly different.

In the middle of the eurozone crisis,  Belgium wants a European

to succeed Strauss-Kahn as  the IMF chief. What’s your view on that?

The IMF is a huge  international organisation

and whereas individual personalities  can make a difference, and do,

I'm not sure that the general thrust of  the organisation towards Europe

would change dramatically, if...  Depending on who the head is.

I believe it’s in the interests of Europe

that a European continues to lead  the IMF, as the tradition has been.

Will the Arab Spring,  begun in Tunisia,

have an impact on the development  of other African countries?

MEPs and MPs from African,  Caribbean and Pacific countries

will try to answer this question  in a meeting in Hungary.

It has caused us problems,  especially in the case of Libya.

I’m from Mali... Many Malians  were resident in Libya.

They have been repatriated thanks to  great efforts by the Malian government.

The international community  should help Mali.

I think we should help them build  democratic structures, because -

even the simplest parliamentary  processes must be learnt.

In order to help some 70  of the ACP countries to develop,

the EU is paying nearly €2.3 billion  during the period 2008-2013.

But it’s not giving them a blank cheque.

Every euro given to a country in need  must be used in a transparent manner.

People say, ‘they must take  their fate into their own hands’,

but at the same time they also say, ‘we  don’t trust them to spend our money well’.

Budget support is more strictly  controlled than project aid.

A majority of MEPs would like  the EU’s direct aid to developing countries

to increase significantly.  This money helps build schools, hospitals

and pay the personnel  needed to operate them.

Paparazzi, red carpet and movie stars –  we are at the Cannes Film Festival:

an occasion for the EU to reassert  its support for European cinema.

Despite the economic and financial crisis  limiting budgets,

the Commission will extend  its aid programme

for the distribution  and promotion of EU films.

more than €750 million have already been  granted to the European film industry.

are one of the most  flourishing industries of our time.

In Germany, for example, they contribute  more to GDP than car production.

Faced with US competition,  European cinema is at a disadvantage.

Nearly two thirds of the movies  shown in the EU come from the US.

The number of languages in the EU  curbs the distribution of European films.

The EP’s LUX Prize  confronts the problem head on.

Language and culture  are very closed linked.

There’s nothing like seeing a film in the  original language, obviously with subtitles.

That’s the principle of the EP's LUX Prize

which offers subtitling in 23 languages so  that Bulgarians can see Portuguese films

which they might never have seen  were it not for this subtitling.

Films supported by the EU programme  have won, in 20 years, 12 Palme d’Or,

13 Grand Prix and 9 Best Director  Awards at the Cannes Film Festival.