Brussels, 21/05/2013 (Agence Europe) - European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth Androulla Vassiliou is promising member states that the cultural exception will not enter into the EU-US free trade negotiations.
In reply to concerns expressed by several member states, Vassiliou promised European culture ministers - who were meeting on 17 May - that cultural diversity will not be subject to negotiation as part of the transatlantic free trade agreement. “Achieving this agreement is a very high priority. At the same time, it should not impair the ability of the EU and its member states to preserve and promote cultural diversity. This is an obligation under the EU Treaty, under the acquis, as well as under the 2005 UNESCO Convention on the protection and the promotion of the diversity of cultural expressions”, Vassiliou stated. In this context, all the specific instruments aiming to preserve cultural diversity - such as the MEDIA programme (which supports the audiovisual sector), and the audiovisual services directive, (which guarantees the promotion of and access to European works), and also public subsidies, funding obligations for radio broadcasters, taxes on cinema tickets, co-production agreements, linguistic policy measures, the functioning of channels with a public service mission, the capping of participation in channels and networks, intellectual property rights and specific social security systems, will be excluded from the negotiations, Vassiliou promised. “Protecting and promoting cultural diversity in the up-coming trade negotiation with the US means respecting three clear red-lines: the existing EU policies and instruments and corresponding measures at member states' level shall not be touched on during negotiations; the existing national measures to regulate the audiovisual sector and support domestic and European content shall not be touched on during negotiations; we shall maintain our ability to continue adapting and developing meaningful policies for cultural diversity, both at EU and member state level”, Vassiliou stated.
On the initiative of France, the culture ministers of 13 member states - Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain - have called for the cultural exception “to be fully maintained” during the EU-US negotiations. The Irish Presidency of the Council of Ministers is due to tie up the negotiating draft with the Commission by mid-June.
Mobilisation at Cannes Festival. Mobilised for months against the inclusion of audiovisual services in the EU-US negotiations, European film makers - who have had the support of American producer Harvey Weinstein - officially handed a petition to Vassiliou on the sidelines of the 2013 international film festival. The petition was signed by over 5,000 European professionals and creators, calling for respect of the cultural exception, and reiterating that “the European cultural project can only exist on condition that audiovisual and cinema services are expressly excluded from the negotiating mandate” of the Commission. (EH/transl.fl)