Euro Disney to build second Paris park

DISNEY ANNOUNCED plans yesterday to build a pounds 400m movie, television and computer theme park next to Disneyland Paris, east of the French capital.

But in deference to French sensitivities about American cultural domination of Europe, Disney promised that the park will celebrate the European contribution to cinema and TV as well as the history of Hollywood. Disney said it would start sponsoring training schemes for aspiring European film and programme-makers.

The park, to be called Disney Studios and expected to open in spring 2002, will be broadly similar to the Universal Studios tourist attraction in Florida.

A second phase of the Euro Disney development in Marne-la-Vallee has been planned ever since Walt Disney signed its original agreement with the French government in 1987. Losses in the first few years after the original park opened in 1992 put the project on hold but Disneyland Paris is now making a profits of around pounds 20m a year.

Disney will raise pounds 150m for its new venture by increasing the capital of Euro Disney. The other pounds 250m will be borrowed from a French government agency. Road access to both parks will be improved to cope with the extra visitors.

Disney expects another 4 million visitors to be drawn to the new park once it is completed. Almost 5,000 jobs are expected to be created.

The movie park will be the third phase of the Euro Disney development on the Marne. The company is also building an American-style town next to the Disney theme park, consisting of a shopping mall and 12,000 homes.