The culture agenda

Promoting access to culture for all EU citizens; exploiting the potential of the cultural and creative sector; improving the necessary conditions for artists’ mobility; producing statistics in the cultural sector; implementing the UNESCO Convention on the protection and promotion of diversity of cultural expressions: these are the fields of action of the first “Culture Agenda”, pertaining to the period 2008-2010 and approved by the Council of the 27 in recent days.ONE STRATEGY, THREE OBJECTIVES. The Agenda is something new within the EU institutions, since culture is a sector that was and remains a pre-eminently national competence. The decision to formulate the Agenda, more particularly, is a response to the needs for coordination that emerged from the member countries. It was finalized in the run up to the Year of International Dialogue that will be celebrated throughout Europe in 2008. The strategy adopted by the Council identifies three major objectives that, together, will form a common framework for European institutions, member states and professionals in the sector: first, the promotion of cultural diversity and dialogue; second, the support for culture “as catalyst of creativity in the context of the Lisbon strategy for growth and employment”; and third, the promotion of culture as “indispensable element in the international relations of the European Union”. The Commission, which had prepared the way for this decision with a Communication last May, has now been given the task of “working in this direction with a view to achieving tangible results over the next three years”.RESPECT FOR NATIONAL COMPETENCES. The European Council has also given the go ahead to closer collaboration in this area between the institutions of Brussels and Strasbourg, member countries and exponents of culture, according to the “open method of coordination”, a flexible form of cooperation, albeit in “absolute respect for the competences of member states”. Periodic meetings to monitor the results achieved are also planned. To ensure a stable form of dialogue between all the interested parties, including “businesses involved in the cultural and creative industry”, a special Forum has been set up. It is “a follow up to the Forum successfully organized by the Portuguese Presidency in September 2007”.ACTIONS FINANCED BY BRUSSELS. EU actions in this field are already many-sided. They range from the better known ones, such as “European Capitals of Culture”, down the specific Culture Programme provided for in the EU budget: it is endowed with 400 million euros for the period 2007-2013. Thanks to this funding various cultural events are being realized or financed: festivals, new productions, educational opportunities for children, musical events, internet sites… Various other programmes financed by the Union also have an impact of cultural type: for example, Citizens (European citizenship programme), Youth in Action, Lifelong Learning, and Media. The special European portal of culture (accessible from www.europa.eu) describes all these initiatives and others, such as twinning between towns, conferences or exhibitions supported by the Commission, and cooperation with third countries with a view to greater mutual understanding.EXPANDING ECONOMIC SECTOR. The Culture Agenda takes on board the Executive’s indications on “the fundamental role of culture in the integration process” and on the need to achieve greater openness to the world. José Manuel Barroso, President of the Commission, had already anticipated the Agenda’s objectives: “Culture and creativity directly impact on the daily life of citizens. They are important factors of personal development, social cohesion and economic growth”. But “they are also far more than that: they are the central elements of a European project based on common values and on a common heritage that at the same time respects diversity. This strategy, aimed at fostering understanding between cultures, confirms that culture is at the centre of our policies”. According to data recently published by Eurostat, culture – as an economic sector – employs over 5 million people, some 2.5% of the entire EU labour force; it also contributes “to the development of new technologies of information and communication, the exploitation of territories as areas of tourism, and the revitalization and cohesion of society”.AN EU MORE OPEN TO THE WORLD. As for the “external dimension” of European culture, the Commission insists “on the need for an EU strategy open to the world”. To this end it has proposed measures to reinforce the role of culture and knowledge as essential “component of political dialogue with partner countries and regions” in the rest of the planet, by promoting exchanges and “systematically integrating culture in development programmes and projects”. As regards 2008, Year of Intercultural Dialogue, including inter-religious dialogue, the EU and the Council of Europe are planning many events, the calendar of which will be published on a special website.