At a Culture and Sport Council on Wednesday 23 May, Education Commissioner Tibor Navracsics was open to the idea of launching an "Erasmus for culture", as requested by a number of member states during the meeting.
In response to an appeal by Belgium, Lithuania, France, Italy, Spain and others, the Commissioner said that at present, they were supporting artists’ mobility thanks to a small-scale system in the Creative Europe programme and such a scheme would exist after 2020, though perhaps with another name.
On Wednesday, the European culture ministers discussed a long-term vision of the culture sector’s contribution to the European project post-2020. Boil Banov, Bulgaria’s culture minister, said a number of ministers intervened, each recalling the importance of maintaining a Creative Europe as an independent programme with its own budget and that culture needs to be defended in other sectoral policies too.
The ministers adopted a conclusions document on the need to highlight cultural heritage in EU policies. The conclusions add to conclusions of December 2017, inviting the EU to examine the options of putting the focus more explicitly on the preservation and promotion of Europe’s common cultural heritage in relevant EU programmes, such as by adding cultural heritage as a strategic objective to the list of priorities.
Young people. On Tuesday afternoon, European youth ministers held a policy debate on the future of the European youth policy.
Many member states, for instance the United Kingdom, Ireland and Croatia, called for the prioirtiies set out at a conference in Sofia in April 2018 to be followed.
Finland called, however, for the objectives to be assessed and opposed the creation of any new structure.
Commissioner Navracsics told this newsletter that he felt the main message was the ministers’ call for youth aspects to be added to other policy domains.
The meeting on Wednesday afternoon was devoted to sport with a policy debate on the commercial use of high-level sport and the viability of the European sports model. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)