Brussels, 30/01/2014 (Agence Europe) - The Committee of the Regions (CoR) has been examining the added value provided by the cultural industries in helping cities and regions tackle the crisis. On Wednesday 29 January, a conference on the creative and cultural sector (which accounts for 4% of the EU's GDP and 4.5% of its workforce) enabled stakeholders, artists, NGOs, mayors, chief executives and European civil servants to exchange their experiences and discuss their mutual projects in this area. The European Commissioner for Culture, Androulla Vassiliou, took part in the event and confirmed that “culture can offer a solution in times of economic downturn, because of its contribution to growth, jobs and social cohesion and thanks to its potential for fostering innovation”. Mercedes Bresso (PES, Italy), the CoR vice president, emphasised that, even during the crisis, public authorities sometimes decided to reduce their cultural budget but the regions that maintained a solid economic development strategy based on culture had lower unemployment rates. Given that the regions are laboratories for the creative industries, Bresso concluded that the EU should attempt to locate innovation and help it develop, particularly through structural funds and the 9% of the European budget earmarked for the sector up to 2020. She also suggested setting up a European creativity forum to analyse how the EU could bring about creative solutions to local and European problems. (MD/transl.fl)