Bruxelles, 16/01/2004 (Agence Europe) - The recent declaration by Spanish Prime Minister José Maria Aznar whereby “cultural exception is fine for declining cultures” comes “as a surprise”, French Socialist Michel Rocard, Chairman of European Parliament's Committee on Culture, comments in a press release. He notes it is “indeed very rare for this often victorious politician or at any rate an effective, sly and cautious one, to allow a connotation of lack of reflection (...) and even incompetence to show in his stances”. The former French Prime Minister went on to say: “Both the Spanish and French cultures are in full effervescence. He must know this (...) although his statement does make one feel that he is rather forgetting the Latin American culture. In the case of French-speaking culture (...) he needs to be reminded that our literature remains abundant and our film industry one of the most creative in Europe. And the French demographic dynamism, which is unique in Europe, ensures this vitality will enjoy decent longevity. Decline, thank heaven, is not in sight”.
Mr Rocard insisted saying it is not decline that is an issue here but rather a power struggle. A film, he said, that is produced in the English-speaking world attracts one billion viewers, in the Spanish-speaking world 400 million, and in the French and German-speaking worlds hardly more than 150 each. Cultural exception means “defending heritage” and safeguarding the “linguistic comfort of each of the cultures that go to make up the Union. The vitality or the decline of each have nothing to do with the minimum economic conditions needed for their preservatin”, Mr Rocard concluded.