Brussels, 21/05/2014 (Agence Europe) - During a debate on Wednesday 21 May, focusing on the definition of priorities that should be set out in the work plan for promoting culture, EU culture ministers acknowledged the importance of closer cooperation in order to better identify common challenges in the cultural arena, and develop appropriate policies.
The Greek minister for culture and audiovisual affairs, Panos Panagiotopoulos, underlined the need to protect and value culture and make it accessible to all. He also said that, thanks to new technology it could be made more widely available because this sector brought people together and could generate enthusiasm among citizens in this period of reluctance towards the European project. He concluded that “our discussion was excellent and creative. It showed that, in the Europe of today and tomorrow, the priority on culture should be highlighted better. It is not just a factor of common identity but also an exceptional tool that will help Europe's economic development and, in a period of crisis, will be a strategic tool for social cohesion”. Commissioner for Culture, Androulla Vassiliou, concurred and highlighted the need to strengthen the culture portfolio further. She underlined the importance of digitalising European artistic and cultural heritage and the need for member states to contribute to developing the European digital library, Europeana.
Priorities have to be better defined and focus on key actions to prioritise, underlined ministers and member state representatives during the debate. The priorities they proposed include: the digitalisation of cultural goods, with the protection of copyright a fundamental factor; the protection of European cultural goods in an increasingly globalised environment, and the preservation of cultural sites under threat from the increasing number of natural disasters due to climate change; finding new funding models for ensuring better support for cultural creativity and action supporting the mobility of artists and works of art. The ministers and Commissioner Vassiliou emphasised the transversal nature of culture and the impact of the culture sector on the decisions taken in many other policies, such as education and research. Hence the need to establish links with the other ministries. Some countries, particularly France, pointed out the unique character of culture, which could not be considered as an economic good (the cultural exception) and should, therefore, be withdrawn from the scope of application of the transatlantic partnership. There were many countries (Latvia, Sweden, Ireland, Estonia, Czech Republic, Poland, Austria, Belgium to mention just a few) that called for updated and reliable statistics in an effort to provide a better and more accurate picture of the situation in the cultural sector and the priorities that should be defined for the future. Vassiliou was aware of the lack of such data and indicated that the Commission services were currently examining ways of compiling accurate data that illustrated the economic importance of culture. She added that statistics on culture, compiled by the European Statistics Office, Eurostat, with which she is working, should also be provided on a more frequent basis.
Since 2002, Council has been using work plans to promote culture as medium-term strategic tool for defining priority areas in which it thinks there should be expert-level discussion. The next work plan will be drawn up by the end of the year and the Greek Presidency has sought to foster a debate on the subject in an effort to improve the planning of the priorities to be included. (IL)