A Europe of Culture 
The European Union grew out of economic foundations and not out of cultural cooperation so the EU has only established its cultural policy very gradually.
In 1977, the European Commission started to implement its first cultural action plan. In the middle of the 1980s, with the advent of satellite radio broadcasting, it presented a green paper on the establishment of the common market for radio broadcasting, setting off a debate that led to the adoption of the Television Without Frontiers Directive in October 1989.
However, it was only with the Maastricht Treaty in 1992 that the Community was granted competency in the area of culture. The treaty meant that the EU could contribute to the development of culture in Member States with respect to their national diversity, while highlighting a common cultural heritage.
This development came to the fore during the debates that took place in the 1990s on 'cultural exception', which later became 'cultural diversity', and enabled EU states to maintain their systems of publicly funding cinema and audiovisual productions.
Objectives
The objective is to contribute to the development of culture in Member States with respect to their national diversity, while highlighting a common cultural heritage.
Specifically, community action to benefit culture has the following objectives:
- promote creation in diversity and contribute to the economic development of these sectors;
- strengthen the feeling of belonging to the European community while respecting diversity of traditions and cultures – both national and regional;
- give European citizens access to culture, as an element of social integration: dance, opera, painting, sculpture, photography, architecture, heritage of buildings and artefacts, audiovisual (television, multimedia, electronic publishing etc.);
- support non-commercial cultural exchange;
- develop employment potential in the culture sector;
- promote cultural diversity in EU countries;
- contribute to the spread of European culture throughout the world.
Functioning
Community policy
Since the beginning of 2010, community action in the culture domain has been the responsibility of European Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou (Cyprus).
Biography (FR)
In accordance with the principle of subsidiarity, the Union only becomes involved if the objectives of the action cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States. Community action is not therefore a substitute for Member State action but complements it in order to encourage cultural cooperation
Community action consists, firstly, of ensuring good conditions of exchange and competition of cultural capital and, secondly, of encouraging cooperation between cultural stakeholders of Member States while respecting the principle of subsidiarity (i.e. without substituting what the Member States, regions, towns and associations are already doing).
Cultural policy cannot be treated in isolation. On the contrary, it must be taken into account in all the European Union’s policies because the majority of European actions have a cultural dimension. Regional policy, for example, supports local heritage in the framework of the Structural Funds (e.g.: management of the Carnac site, a megalithic stone site in France).
Environment, tourism, research, employment and training policies also have a major effect on culture.
In a report published on this subject, the European Commission noted however that it is sometimes difficult to reconcile specifically cultural objectives to other policies, particularly fiscal, competition and price policies.
Because of this close link with other European policies, community actions stem from either explicitly cultural programmes (Culture), or from programmes on regional development, education (Lifelong Learning Programme), professional training (Leonardo), new IT technology (eEurope), cooperation with third countries, the environment, tourism, research (7th Framework Programme) or other linkages.
Actions in the framework of the Council of Europe
All Member States of the European Union are signatories of the European Cultural Convention, established in 1954 within the framework of the Council of Europe.
This convention promotes a communal action policy aiming to safeguard European culture and to encourage and develop it.
Its members thus commit to encouraging the study of:
- languages;
- de l'histoire et de la civilisation des Etats signataires de la Convention ;
- their common civilisation
Financing
The two main financial instruments that contribute to community action promoting culture are ‘Culture’ and ‘MEDIA 2007’.
The Culture Programme (2007-2013)
This programme takes up the main action points of the former Culture Programme 2000 thanks to which hundreds of books were translated and thousands of cultural organisations worked towards the creation and dissemination of European artistic projects.
It aims to promote cooperation between cultural stakeholders (creators, promoters, distributors, networks, cultural institutions) in order to discover, and enable discovery of, European culture; to support the creation and dissemination of cultural works; to facilitate artist mobility and to show the importance of cultural diversity in order to engender a feeling of European citizenship.
The ‘Culture’ Programme is open to all Member States of the European Union, EEA member countries (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway) and candidate countries. The programme is also open to third countries who have signed association or cooperation agreements with the community that include culture-related clauses.
The selection of projects, through the invitation to tender, prioritises actions that contribute to transnational cooperation, circulation of artistic works as well as cultural and artistic products, mobility of people working in the cultural sector and intercultural dialogue.
This programme has a budget of 400 million euros for the period 2007-2013.
The Media Programme 2007 (2007-2013)
Adopted in November 2006, the MEDIA programme 2007 gives support to the audiovisual industry to redress the imbalance between European audiovisual productions and American imports and to promote the broadcast of European films and programmes. The issue of 'cultural exception’ (which later became ‘cultural diversity’) is to allow European States to maintain their systems of publicly funding cinema and audiovisual production.
The programme complements the national mechanisms that support production, both upstream (training professionals for the audiovisual and development industry) and downstream of the creative process (distribution of European films and programmes).
With a fund of 755 million euros for the period 2007-2013, this programme takes up the actions undertaken in the MEDIA Plus programme which unquestionably contributed to reviving cinematographic production in Europe (the EU produces as many films as the United States, i.e. 700 per year) and the circulation of European works.
Examples of implementation
In practice, European policy culture is about:
- the protection of the cultural heritage of Member States which tempers the principle of free movement of goods by ensuring that national artistic, historical and archeological treasures do not leave European Union territory;
- the establishment of a system of reduced taxation for certain products and cultural services (such as books, copyright, exhibitions, museums, cinema tickets and concert tickets) in order to support these products;
- the harmonisation of copyright protection duration and related rights. A 1993 directive made provisions for copyright protection for 70 years after the death of the author;
- the European Borders Breakers Awards (EBBA) which aims to award prizes in support of artist mobility in Europe;
- the intergovernmental initiative launched in 1985, ‘European Cities of Culture’, which aims to promote the cultural diversity of Europe's towns by demonstrating their creativity and common cultural heritage;
- the promotion of cultural diversity: the concept that is included in the community treaties, particularly in the Charter of Fundamental Rights. Also, a Convention on the protection and promotion of the diversity of cultural expressions was adopted in 2005 by UNESCO with the active support of the EU;
- the Television Without Borders Directive which enables citizens to have access to all television programmes produced in Europe. This directive is thus the basis of national regulations regarding television. It has the following two objectives: create a common market for television radio-broadcasting and encourage the development of the programme industry in Member States.
The European culture awards
The Culture Programme supports European prize-giving particularly in the areas of cultural heritage, architecture, literature and music.
European prizes is to raise awareness of successful European activities in these areas.
The prizes reward artists, music groups, architects, authors and al those who work in the field of cultural heritage. According to the Commission, ‘they showcase Europe’s rich cultural diversity and the importance of intercultural dialogue and cross-border cultural heritage activities in Europe and beyond.
Perspectives
On October 5th 2005, the European Commission adopted a proposal to declare 2008 as ‘European Year of Intercultural Dialogue’. With an overall budget of 10 million euros, the year consisted of implementing a series of concrete projects on intercultural dialogue in several domains such as culture, education, youth, sport and citizenship. .
Furthermore, one of the main issues is the promotion of cultural diversity which is achieved through public entities being able to continue giving financial support to the cultural and audiovisual sectors..
At national level, several States have put increasing pressure on the EU to strengthen liberalisation in this field. Nonetheless, the UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions was adopted in October 2005, the completion of which owes a lot to the work of the European Commission and Member States, particularly France.
Finally, it is worth noting the desire to put in place a charter for a Europe of Culture which would enable the EU to take culture into consideration in all community policies.
Texts and documents
European Cultural Convention - Council of Europe
Useful sites
Culture Portal of the European Commission
French Ministry of Culture (FR)
Culture Action Europe
Relais Culture Europe
Dernière mise à jour : 16/11/09
