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Summary of Recommendations

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Bigger... Better... Beautiful?

Conference on the impact of EU enlargement on cultural opportunities across Europe

Budapest, 14-17 February, 2002

Summary of Recommendations


A summary of key recommendations that emerged from the discussions in various sessions, where support was evident from the majority of the participants.

1. There needs to be an EU vision for culture which encompasses:

  • A statement of strategic objectives,
  • A programme to support mobility,
  • A programme to support research and development,
  • Targeted production funding for accession countries,
  • An ending to Commission conceived "emblematic" cultural projects.

2. If the EU believes language diversity to be important, then translation programmes are crucial and should be funded.

3. The cultural sector should lobby a matrix of policy-makers, not just those from the cultural sector.

4. The cultural sector should also pay attention to basic issues such as labour conditions, particularly in the CEE countries (noting that a practical solution would be a fund to top up wages/salaries in CEE countries).

5. Regarding Culture 2000:

  • A possible feasibility phase should be explored,
  • More needs to be done about delays in contracting and making payment,
  • The deadlines should be set earlier so that projects for the year in question can begin at the beginning of that year,
  • The first payment should be more than 50% given the lengthy delay that exists in receiving the final payment,
  • A special mobility fund should be part of the programme,
  • The program should target "not yet candidate" countries as well,
  • In order to respond to cultural initiatives, enthusiasm is needed on both sides, and this is not the case when one is faced with administrators.

6. The cultural sector must start lobbying now to influence the objectives and criteria for the successor to the Culture 2000 programme.

7. The culture and media sectors must gain a more prominent place in the EU Structural Funds. Accession countries should be prepared for the type of planning, fund management and evaluation which is commonly employed in connection with the EU Structural Funds in the present Member States.

8. Cultural projects funded from the structural or the trans-national funds need to be better identified and promoted.

9. Commissioner Viviane Reding should write to the heads of state of all Member States and the accession countries urging them to write to those responsible at the regional level for allocating the Structural Funds to note the importance of the cultural sector.

10. There should be a ‘risk fund' - which would be used to invest in people with new ideas.

11. Practical programmes that can help develop sustainable local creative industries should be highlighted.

12. Follow-up to this event was essential, and a further conference in 2003 should be seriously investigated.

Participants were asked to take these recommendations, as appropriate, away with them and use them as the basis for lobbying their national and European representatives.