Europe May Ease Barriers to U.S. Entertainment : Trade: A European Union official’s comments are well received by a U.S. film industry official.

In a sign that Europe could ease barriers limiting Hollywood’s access to the Continent’s entertainment market, a senior European Union official Friday declared that the union plans to move away from protectionist measures that prop up its struggling audiovisual sector.

Colette Flesch, director general of the EU Executive Commission’s cultural affairs department, indicated that only a new, aggressive global strategy to promote its own entertainment products can guarantee the sector’s long-term survival.

“Europe has no alternative but to develop a coherent global strategy if it wants its industry to survive and develop,” she told a seminar on the media here. “It is in this context that the Commission . . . aims at presenting both governments and professionals with options not to increase protectionism, but to give a new dynamic perspective to the European audiovisual sector.”

Flesch’s remarks reflected a growing realization on this side of the Atlantic that protectionist measures, aimed mainly at restricting the access of U.S. films to Europe, had not just failed to protect Europe’s film industry but also seriously weakened it.

Franklin Tonini, vice president of the Motion Picture Export Assn. of America’s European office here, applauded the general direction of Flesch’s comments. “We warmly endorse what she said,” he said. “We in the United States are prepared to cooperate with the Europeans.”

The tone and content of Flesch’s speech mark a dramatic shift of thinking in a region that has come to see generous state subsidies for local films, as well as quotas and other restrictions on foreign productions, as essential for the industry’s survival.

In 1992, European films were supported by government subsidies totaling more than $700 million. Despite these subsidies, those movies have failed to gain much audience support, with attendance figures declining at a time when attendance for U.S. films in Europe is stable.

Another reason for the proposed strategy shift, EU officials admit, is that advances in audiovisual technology are increasingly likely to undermine protectionist measures.

“European directors need to start making films for people, not just for themselves,” said Ivan Hodac, vice president of Time Warner Europe. He claimed that about half of Europe’s subsidized films never reach the theaters.

Flesch’s comments carry added significance because they come as the EU starts an in-depth review of the region’s audiovisual sector. A formal discussion paper carrying much of the flavor of Flesch’s remarks is scheduled to be approved by the commission within the next few weeks. The paper will probably then become the focus of an industry conference, to be held here in May and called by Joao de Deus Pinheiro, EU cultural affairs commissioner.

Times staff writer James Bates in Los Angeles contributed to this report.