Europe discovers itself weak. The crisis, whose end the experts have gravely been announcing for months, seems to be overtaking more and more countries and to be reaching even the strongholds of western wealth. Countries with solid and apparently untouchable economies like France begin to launch hasty plans for deficit reduction.
Like every indebted family, even Europe, panic-stricken, tries not only to reduce its expenses, but to sell its family treasures, too. ‘Privatize’ seems to be the magic word to reassure the markets.
It’s enough to dig a little to find out that, behind the scenes, a real discount sale of public properties is taking place. Castles, islands, mountains, historical buildings. Public means everybody’s - in other words ‘ours’. Someone is selling a large part of our heritage behind our backs.
Europe for sale is an investigative documentary. It examines the ways in which European public institutions have got so indebted during the last thirty years, it reveals who has been favoured by this indebtedness and finally it discovers the reasons that have lead national politicians not to confront with their loss of power caused by the rise of the European Union’s role and by globalisation.
The documentary will unfold as a personal journey around Europe to explain how and why European national political institutions have ended up selling its lakes, its castles and its palaces.
Following seven main stories in different countries, the film will meet some of the main players of the real estate market, offering an inside vision on how does the selling and acquisition process of public proprieties take place, and drawing the profiles of the new buyers and of their business motivations in their acquisition. What it is the size of this market?
Europe for sale will travel around Europe to find its specialists and its players. By doing so it will give full evidence to the widespread dimension of this process and of its consequences. The different locations of the journey together with the visual discovery of the public proprieties for sale will give the film a natural surrounding where time has another dimension and poetry, which certainly cannot be found in the business and political offices.
European Prize for Journalism – Video category 2015