In award season, Costa-Gavras celebrates the value of Parliament's prizes and sets out his vision of Europe in the context of today's major crises.

Vision of a film great: Europe of culture and education

The European Parliament awarded  its LUX Film Prize 2015 to 'Mustang'

by the Turkish-French director  Deniz Gamze Ergüven.

A film which, according to her,  embodies the ideals of Europe.

Present in the hemicycle was also a master  of the genre, the filmmaker Costa-Gavras.

For him, Europe's role is simple, to support  culture and education above all else.

Costa-Gavras, hello and welcome  to the European Parliament.

What did you think of this film and does it  symbolise for you a European ideal?

I think it symbolises a lot of things.  First of all, a young director

who studied in France has gone to  Turkey, her country, and made a film,

a very beautiful film about a problem  that is today a burning issue,

that is, how young people find themselves  facing people who are very conservative,

not to say obscurantist,  who want a certain kind of life.

Women to be veiled, to behave  in a certain way, to be slaves in fact.

Another interesting thing is that  the film is in Turkish.

France decided this film would  represent them at the Oscars.

This means that Europe -  even if Turkey is not entirely European -

and also respect the language of others,  and promote it, in a way.

What is the importance of all these prizes?

There's the LUX Film Prize, there's the  Sakharov Prize, there's a Citizen's Prize.

The importance lies in the fact of the  Parliament, Europe, attending to culture.

It pays very little attention to culture.

Besides, this prize is more of an excuse  than a real cultural policy.

I think Europe does not currently have  a real cultural policy.

They're preoccupied with...  I know MEPs want, I've met some of them,

they want to do more.  But it's all about the economy now.

The Commission thinks of nothing but  the economy and that's what we get.

Seeing Europe now, the Greek crisis  that you've put a great deal of effort into,

how is Greece?  -There, Europe is more than Europe.

It's not much talked about  but Greece is doing very badly,

What was incoherent with Europe,  or rather the European Commission,

because Europe is different,  there are the MEPs.

The European Commission says,  no, no, these debts are too heavy,

the Greeks can never repay them.  But they are not being reduced.

Do you still believe in the Tsipras method?

I believe in Tsipras as a man,  I don't know who he has around him,

but I believe in him  because he's young, ambitious, clean -

I don't believe he's been mixed up  in anything, and he's the only hope.

If I list them all,  the Greek political leaders,

I don't see who else to trust  with Greece today.

Because they're most of them  responsible for the debts.

They created the current situation.  So I believe in him for that reason.

And I hope he will have the strength  and the following to change the situation.

But it will be very difficult because  Europe is not doing enough to help.

So do you believe in this Europe or not?

Well, one has to believe in it,  criticise it and ask it to change

because if not, we'll cease to believe  and the EU will become undone.

Today, Greece is the first country of arrival  for many Syrians and Iraqis.

How can it face this situation,  does it have the means for it?

Greece has hosted a million immigrants  for several years already.

They cannot leave. They can neither  go elsewhere nor return home.

So there's this million, or more, it seems.

And now they've been joined  by tens of thousands of others.

It's no longer the crisis,  the economic crisis that Greece knows,

that Tsipras knows so Europe knows.  It's huge. I don't know how they'll manage.

I don't know how Tsipras can manage it  without Europe's help.

How do you see the current situation,  after the Paris attacks?

We've seen the Belgian capital  in a state of extreme tension

What is your analysis of the situation,  Costa-Gavras?

It's truly tragic. There are no more  adjectives to describe this situation.

We've all experienced it  in a terrible manner.

But I think it's a much larger European  drama, a unique, entirely new drama.

People who destroy themselves  in order to destroy other people.

In Europe's history  there have been lots of horrors

but not that.  So we have to live with that.

Also, the Belgians  have not been very prudent.

For years, these groups  were getting prepared

and the Belgians let them,  or didn't pay attention, I don't know which.

If you had to make a film... Would you be  interested in making a film about this?

that the film can explain, or study  the situation and the people's thoughts.

But here thinking is absent.  Their thoughts are evil.

So I wouldn't know what to do,  how to treat it in such a film.

People who strap themselves  with explosives.

After, if they are -  as a rather ironic aside,

these people are idiots. Lots of them  only blew themselves up

without succeeding  in what they wanted to do.

So behind that, there is also total idiocy.

And in my view that is one of the weapons  that Europeans can use,

the stupidity of these people,  because there is a lot of it.

They want to kill unbelievers. What will that  change? They want to change the world?

They'll never succeed  in changing us in Europe.

We are much too strong.  Our democracies are truly powerful.

Costa-Gavras, thank you for this interview.