Brussels, 29/03/2011 (Agence Europe) - On the occasion of the informal Culture Council held in Gödöllõ on 28 March this year, member state representatives discussed culture's contribution to the EUROPE 2020 strategy, copyrights and online cultural content. Hungarian Culture Minister Géza Szöcs, who chaired the meeting, said he was “convinced that the cultural sector will help Europe recover from the current crisis” given the dynamism of the culture industry. The commissioner responsible for education, culture, youth and multilingualism, Androulla Vassiliou, added that “there is a need for more local and regional subsidies for cultural development, and for greater cross-border cooperation”. The commissioner also spoke of future financing possibilities and, in this context, national representatives affirmed that culture should not fall victim to the crisis but, on the contrary, help recovery. They spoke of measures that they felt were useful for boosting efficiency in the cultural sector within the EU, and identified areas within the cultural sector which they felt should undergo further improvement and investment in order to meet the set objectives. On the subject of copyright, participants advocated the proper regulation of copyright and stressed the importance of the fight against piracy and the protection of cultural values. With regard to the online distribution of creative content (on which the Commission will be publishing a Green Paper this year), delegations maintained it was necessary to find solutions in order to set up a legal, wide and diverse supply of online content along with decent payment for authors. Several member states proposed to cut taxes on intellectual property, such as that on books, and to promote and increase awareness of their digital publication. As far as the online Europeana Digital Library is concerned, this initiative must be strengthened in order to contribute to safeguarding cultural heritage.
In a declaration, the Hungarian Presidency summarised the conclusions of the informal meeting and of a conference on the theme The Contribution of Culture to the Implementation of EUROPE 2020 Strategy recently held in Budapest. It invites member states and the Commission to support programmes that allow the economic impact of culture to be measured. Finally, it calls on the Commission to examine the possibility of taking into account, in the EU's budgetary forecasts and sectoral policy proposals, the contribution that culture can make to the EUROPE 2020 strategy objectives. The creation of a development and investment bank specialised in culture having been mentioned during the meeting, Szöcs said he was in favour of a debate on this issue during one of the next Council meetings. (I.L./transl.jl)