Brussels, 28/01/2008 (Agence Europe) - Representatives from the EU's Culture Ministries and from the European music industry met in Cannes on 27 January to discuss the challenges facing the music industry at an informal meeting, held to coincide with the start of this year's MIDEM international trade fair for the music and recording industry. The meeting was devoted to the role of the culture sector in growth and the job creation. Industry representatives pointed out that the sector was going through difficult times: finding new talent, writing new lyrics and producing new music recordings is extremely expensive, while it is becoming ever easier to copy artists' works through digital media without compensating the artists and other companies concerned. “Developing content requires investments, but the return on them is diminishing. Consumers seem to see digital availability as a right that they shouldn't have to pay for,” said Denis Olivennes, managing Director of Fnac, a chain of shops specialising in cultural products. Noting that “innovation and creativity are fundamental to the process of economic growth,” Culture Commissioner Ján Figel' advocated better quality “tailor-made” policies for the creative industries. These policies, he said, would be most appropriately developed through improved cooperation between member states by proceeding with the implementation of the EU's first ever strategy for culture, which the European Commission proposed in May 2007, through the “open method of communication” (see EUROPE 9424). The Commissioner announced the creation of a group of experts from member states and a group with civil society organisations, whose tasks will be to focus on unleashing the full potential of the cultural and creative industries, especially in small and medium sized enterprises. He also announced that a new study will get underway in February to investigate the circumstances that effectively contribute to stimulating creativity in the EU. The study will also focus on ways to further explore and promote the specific role of culture in fostering creativity. This study will help identify the type of actions that should be implemented during the forthcoming “European Year of Creativity and Innovation through Education and Culture” in 2009. (I.L.)