Outline
At our Helsinki and Warsaw conferences, we looked into some overarching issues concerning our action such as interculturality, democracy or sustainable development, Our 2008 conference by contrast will be focusing on two specific issues, featuring on the European cultural agenda: the place of culture in the external relations of the European Union (EU) – with a special focus on the Euro-Mediterranean area – and the involvement of civil society, and thus of cultural actors, in the development of EU policies.
With those two themes, our concern remains true to our core mission, i.e. to examine and discuss the role of EU cultural actors in strengthening the mainstreaming of culture in the European project as a whole.
But this year, our approach breaks new ground, by opening up to new issues, new spaces and new actors, all directly linked to the development of the EU cultural agenda. This is why the conference will highlight, for example, the role of local authorities in strengthening European cooperation and action in the cultural field.
Our ultimate goal remains unchanged: to clarify, decipher, help understand European cultural action; to develop tools and methods suited to our working environments; to have our voice heard, defend our interests and try to influence the evolution of EU policies in favour of culture.
Why such choices?
The European cultural agenda
EU external relations and the Mediterranean
The recently strengthened position of culture in the EU political agenda gives us a reason to broaden our thinking.
The European cultural agenda highlights, among other issues, the importance of culture in EU external relations. This shows a shared awareness, at international level, that some global issues are highly cultural – intercultural dialogue, cultural diversity, cultural rights, the relationship between culture and development, etc. These issues are of utmost importance for cultural operators. Our own working practices are already partly an expression of globalisation - consider our mobility, our partnerships and the nature of our projects. Yet we need to concern ourselves with the global context further.
The Euro-Mediterranean situation provides a good example: on the one hand, it is an area in which Europe, particularly through its Community policies, is already present in the cultural field (cultural dimension of the Euro-Mediterranean partnership); and on the other hand, the Mediterranean region is back firmly on the European political agenda, and it can not be discussed without raising highly cultural issues.
Holding our annual conference in Marseille testifies to this reality and allows us to meet operators from both sides of the Mediterranean that are directly involved in cultural cooperation issues
The role of European cultural actors in the development of cultural policies
European cultural action is part of a large and complex framework. Already within the European institutions, Culture Action Europe's main interlocutors, our attention cannot be limited to the Culture programme or to the work of DG EAC. Other Commission services, other policies are or will be open to culture, and new fields need to be explored: external relations, of course, but also regional, research and employment policies, etc., all sectors representing an opportunity for culture and its representatives. Our sector being already aware of the potential of the transversality of culture, it is now time for us to broaden our thinking and means of action, so as to play a truly constructive role in these policy fields.
Moreover, the European Union’s action is multi-faceted. It operates at different levels, meeting with the action of other European actors, who offer different frameworks than those of the European institutions, each of them having their own logic, goals and timings.
Europe is not only being shaped in Brussels, but also at Member State level, following intergovernmental principles for example; and at local level (European cities, regions, etc.). This is the complex European scene in which we develop our activities.
It is essential for the EU cultural sector to know this political framework, identify its mechanisms and protagonists, and know whom to contact, when and how. We also need to be able to organise our representation and the protection of our interests. Some structures already exist – Culture Action Europe is one of them – and new arenas for debate and exchanges are emerging, also on the initiative of the European Commission, such as the platforms for structured dialogue.
In order to have an impact on the political level, we need to step up our self-organisation, reassess priorities, and state clear requests to be heard by our institutional interlocutors. Yet, this does not mean the instrumentalisation of culture. Quite the opposite: it means being efficient by fully knowing the political environment in which we work, in order to have our realities, needs and priorities acknowledged and met in this environment.
Finally, the choice of local authorities is especially important. Local authorities are, within and outside the Community framework, major actors in terms of cultural action and cooperation. They benefit from one of the most important EU policies (regional policy), they are involved in many cooperation structures (transnational, interregional, international, euro-regional), they support their operators in developing projects or initiate such projects themselves. EU cultural operators should therefore try and involve them in the development of their own actions at EU level.
Accompanying the first steps of "Culture Action Europe"
This conference is the first one to be organised under our new brand.
By changing our name to Culture Action Europe, we have clarified the identity and aims of our organisation, stating even more clearly our role as a defender of the arts and culture in Europe. Our ambition is to keep on providing EU cultural operators with a common arena in which they can reflect on the European project, identify their interests and organise their political representation. This "first" Culture Action Europe conference (but the sixteenth to be organised by the European Forum for the Arts and Heritage since its creation in 1992) therefore had to discuss issues at the heart of our concerns, while opening the way to a global, stronger and sustainable action on the EU political scene.
Finally, as a representative of the EU cultural sector, Culture Action Europe must keep on extending its membership, by involving even more operators from various sectors and geographical backgrounds. Organising our annual conference in France – during the French presidency of the European Union – and more specifically in Marseille, on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, is therefore a unique opportunity for our organisation to initiate a dialogue with new partners and further open up to South European countries.
