Brussels, 11/01/2002 (Agence Europe) - The cinema, audiovisual policy and intellectual property intergroup of the European Parliament chaired by Geneviève Fraisse (United Left, France) is organising, on 15 January in Strasbourg, on the fringe of the European Parliament plenary session, a debate with European Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy on the theme "The WTO and Culture". In a press release, Ms Fraisse underlines the "eminently sensitive nature" of trade-related aspects of intellectual property, and notes that, regarding audiovisual and cultural services, authority is shared between the Community and Member States. There will be full power over all trade-related aspects of intellectual property when the Nice Treaty and its new Article 113 take effect, she said. She also puts a series of questions to Mr Lamy: - What will be the Community's future mandate concerning the trade-related aspects of intellectual property? - Is the current mandate, which makes it an obligation to respect cultural diversity during negotiations on audiovisual and cultural services, feasible? - Is this position made more fragile by the flexible and evolutive definition of services, the multiplication of content and the method of exploitation? - What should one think of the proposal to create a new international instrument specific to cultural diversity?