European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...
culture policies aim to address and promote the cultural dimension of
European integration through relevant legislation and government funding.
These policies support the development of cultural activity, education or research conducted by private companies,
NGO
A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in h ...
's and individual initiatives based in the EU working in the fields of
cinema
Cinema may refer to:
Film
* Cinematography, the art of motion-picture photography
* Film or movie, a series of still images that create the illusion of a moving image
** Film industry, the technological and commercial institutions of filmmaking
...
and
audiovisual
Audiovisual (AV) is electronic media possessing both a sound and a visual component, such as slide-tape presentations, films, television programs, corporate conferencing, church services, and live theater productions.
Audiovisual service pr ...
,
publishing,
music
Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspe ...
and
crafts
A craft or trade is a pastime or an occupation that requires particular skills and knowledge of skilled work. In a historical sense, particularly the Middle Ages and earlier, the term is usually applied to people occupied in small scale prod ...
.
The
European Commission
The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body ...
runs ''Culture Programme (2007-2013)'', and the
EU funds other cultural bodies such as the
European Cultural Month European Cultural Month is an event created by the European Union to promote culture. It is similar to the European City of Culture, but lasting for a shorter time and intended mainly for the Central and Eastern
Eastern may refer to:
Transport ...
, the
Media Programme
The MEDIA sub-programme of Creative Europe or simply Creative Europe MEDIA (formerly The MEDIA Programme of the European Union) is designed to support the European film and audiovisual industries.
Budget
The goal of programmers is to increase the ...
, the
European Union Youth Orchestra
The European Union Youth Orchestra (EUYO) is a youth orchestra with members drawn from the 27 members states of the European Union. Since its foundation in 1976, it has connected music colleges and the professional music world for generations o ...
and the
European Capital of Culture programme.
The EU awards grants to cultural projects (233 in 2004) and has launched a web portal dedicated to Europe and Culture, responding to the European Council's expressed desire to see the Commission and the member states "promote the networking of cultural information to enable all citizens to access European cultural content by advanced technological means."
History and development
The
Council of Europe, which is distinct from the European Union (EU), first formalised cultural cooperation policy in Europe with its
European Cultural Convention
The European Cultural Convention is an international Council of Europe's treaty to strengthen, deepen and further develop a European culture, by using local culture as a starting point. Setting common goals and a plan of action to reach an in ...
.
However,
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...
-affiliated
cultural policy, promoting unified cooperation between member states was first initiated with the 1992
Maastricht Treaty
The Treaty on European Union, commonly known as the Maastricht Treaty, is the foundation treaty of the European Union (EU). Concluded in 1992 between the then-twelve Member state of the European Union, member states of the European Communities, ...
.
Currently,
cultural contact point (CCP)is established in each EU member state, responsible for facilitating communication between the
European Commission
The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body ...
's Cultural Programme and each member state.
Institutions and bodies
The most important EU institutions through which decisions are made regarding cultural policies are:
*the
European Commission
The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body ...
acting in the areas of culture, sport and languages,
*the
Committee on Culture and Education
The Committee on Culture and Education (CULT) is a committee of the European Parliament.
Responsibilities of the Committee
This committee has focused on the well-being of all members of the human race and the increased opportunities for educat ...
of the
European Parliament
The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...
,
*the ''Education, Youth and Culture'' sector of the
Council of the European Union
The Council of the European Union, often referred to in the treaties and other official documents simply as the Council, and informally known as the Council of Ministers, is the third of the seven Institutions of the European Union (EU) as ...
,
*and the
Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency of the European Commission.
List of institutions and bodies
The EU promotes cultural development through numerous institutions, civil society organisations and networks such as:
*
Cinema of Europe
Cinema of Europe refers to the film industries and films produced in the continent of Europe.
Europeans were the pioneers of the motion picture industry, with several innovative engineers and artists making an impact especially at the end of ...
*
Committee on Culture and Education
The Committee on Culture and Education (CULT) is a committee of the European Parliament.
Responsibilities of the Committee
This committee has focused on the well-being of all members of the human race and the increased opportunities for educat ...
*
Directorate-General for Education and Culture
The Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture (DG EAC; formerly the Directorate-General for Education and Culture) is a Directorate-General of the European Commission.
The Education, Youth, Sport and Culture Directorate-General i ...
*
Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency
*
Euranet
Euranet (European Radio Network) is a consortium of international, national, regional and local European broadcasters.
History
On 25 July 2007, 16 international, national, regional, and local European broadcasters from 13 EU countries formed a ...
*
Europa Nostra
Europa Nostra (Italian for "Our Europe") is a pan-European Federation for Cultural Heritage, representing citizens' organisations that work on safeguarding Europe's cultural and natural heritage. It is the voice of this movement to relevant inte ...
- foundation
*
European Audiovisual Observatory
The European Audiovisual Observatory (french: italic=no, Observatoire européen de l’audiovisuel, german: italic=no, Europäische Audiovisuelle Informationsstelle) is a public service organisation, part of the Council of Europe set up in 1992 ...
*
European Commission
The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body ...
*
*
European Film Promotion
European Film Promotion (EFP) is an international promotion organisation and a unique network of 38 national film promotion institutes who represent films and talent from their respective territories. Under the EFP flag, the members team up on in ...
*
European Institute of Cultural Routes
The European Institute of Cultural Routes is a non-profit association based in Luxembourg whose aim is to help the Council of Europe, as a technical body, in the establishment of European Cultural Routes.
It was established in 1998 and its role ...
- network
*
European League of Institutes of the Arts
ELIA (formerly known as The European League of Institutes of the Arts) represents some 300.000 students in all art disciplines.
History
ELIA emerged from a conference organized in Amsterdam in 1990, ''Imagination and Diversity'', aimed to pro ...
- network
*
European Network of Information Centres
The European Network of Information Centres (ENIC) were established in 1994 as a joint initiative of UNESCO and the Council of Europe. They are intended to implement the Lisbon recognition convention (LRC) and, in general, to develop policy and ...
- network
*
European Union National Institutes for Culture
The European Union National Institutes for Culture (EUNIC) is a network of European national institutes of culture and national bodies engaged in cultural and related activities beyond their national borders. EUNIC brings together organizations fr ...
*
European Union Youth Orchestra
The European Union Youth Orchestra (EUYO) is a youth orchestra with members drawn from the 27 members states of the European Union. Since its foundation in 1976, it has connected music colleges and the professional music world for generations o ...
- network
*
Union of the Theatres of Europe
The Union of European Theatres (UTE; french: Union des Théâtres de l'Europe) is an alliance of European public theatres. It serves to promote European integration through cultural interaction.
It does intensive transnational theatre work compr ...
- network
* European Network of Cultural Centres - network
*
Trans Europe Halles - network
*
European Festival Association - network
* European Composer & Songwriter Alliance - ECSA - network
* European Choral Association - Europa Cantat EV - network
* Informal European Theatre Meeting - network
* Federation for European Storytelling - network
* Europe Jazz Network - network
* Club de Directores de Arte de Europa (Arts Director Club of Europe) ADCE - network
* Convention Theatrale Europeenne - network
* European Dancehouse Network - network
* European Network of Cultural Administration Training Centres ENCATC - network
* Eurozine - Network of European Cultural Journals
* Amateo the European Network for Active Participation in Cultural Activities Arts Take Part - Active Participation for Creative Europe
* Live (DMA) - network
* European Route of Industrial Heritage) - network
* European Music Council) - network
* Reseau Europeen de Musique Ancienne) - network
* Conseil des Architectes d'Europe) - network
* Association Europenne des Conservatoires, Academies de Musique et Musikhochschulen AEC) - network
* Circostrada) - network
* Secretariat de Jeunesses Musicales International JMI) - network
List of programmes
The EU promotes cultural development through numerous programmes such as:
*
Culture 2000
Culture 2000 was a seven-year European Union (EU) programme, which had among its key objectives to preserve and enhance Europe's cultural heritage. Its duration was from 2000 to 2006, and it had a budget of €236.5 million.
Culture 2000 provided ...
*
Erasmus Mundus
The European Union's Erasmus Mundus programme (named after Erasmus, the Renaissance scholar) aims to enhance quality in higher education through scholarships and academic co-operation between the EU and the rest of the world. The three main objecti ...
*
Erasmus Programme
*
Europa coin programme
*
European Capital of Culture
*
European Cultural Month European Cultural Month is an event created by the European Union to promote culture. It is similar to the European City of Culture, but lasting for a shorter time and intended mainly for the Central and Eastern
Eastern may refer to:
Transport ...
*
European Cultural Route
*
European Heritage Days
European Heritage Days (EHD) is a joint action of the Council of Europe and the European Commission involving all 50 signatory states of the European Cultural Convention under the motto, ''Europe: a common heritage''. The annual programme offers o ...
*
European Library
The European Library is an Internet service that allows access to the resources of 49 European national libraries and an increasing number of research libraries. Searching is free and delivers metadata records as well as digital objects, mostly ...
*
Europeana
Europeana is a web portal created by the European Union containing digitised cultural heritage collections of more than 3,000 institutions across Europe. It includes records of over 50 million cultural and scientific artefacts, brought togethe ...
*
EUscreen
EUscreen is a website that provides free access to Europe's television heritage through videos, articles, images and audio from European audiovisual archives and broadcasters. Its digitised content covers a period from early 1900 until today. EUs ...
*
MEDIA Programme
The MEDIA sub-programme of Creative Europe or simply Creative Europe MEDIA (formerly The MEDIA Programme of the European Union) is designed to support the European film and audiovisual industries.
Budget
The goal of programmers is to increase the ...
*
Modul-dance
*
Protected areas of the European Union
*
Video Active
List of awards
The EU promotes cultural development through the policy of awards:
*
Aristeion Prize
The Aristeion Prize was a European literary annual prize. It was given to authors for significant contributions to contemporary European literature, and to translators for exceptional translations of contemporary European literary works.
The priz ...
*
Civis media prize
*
Europe Book Prize
*
European Border Breakers Award
The European Border Breakers Award (EBBA) was an annual prize awarded to recognise the success of ten emerging artists or groups who reached audiences outside their own countries with their first internationally released album in the past year. ...
*
European Inventor of the Year
*
European IST Grand Prize
*
European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture
*
European Union Prize for Literature
The European Union Prize for Literature (EUPL), established in 2009, is a European Union literary award. Its aim is to recognise outstanding new literary talents from all over Europe, to promote the circulation and translation of literature among ...
*
Lux Prize
*
Young European of the Year
List of non-EU cultural institutions, bodies and programmes
The following is a list of European institutions, bodies and programmes which may be thought to be related to the EU/EU policy, but are not:
*
Arte
Arte (; (), sometimes stylized in lowercase or uppercase in its logo) is a European public service channel dedicated to culture.
It is made up of three separate companies: the Strasbourg-based European Economic Interest Grouping ARTE, plu ...
*
Council of Europe
*
Compendium of cultural policies and trends in Europe
*
Eurocities
Eurocities is a network of large cities in Europe, established in 1986 by the mayors of six large cities: Barcelona, Birmingham, Frankfurt, Lyon, Milan and Rotterdam. Today, Eurocities members includes over 200 of Europe's major cities from 38 c ...
*
EUROFRAME
*
Europalia
Europalia is a major international arts festival held every two years to celebrate one invited country’s cultural heritage. Europalia was established in Brussels in 1969, and from the beginning Europalia was designed to be a multidisciplinary cu ...
*
European Broadcasting Union
*
European Cultural Foundation
The European Cultural Foundation (ECF) is a Netherlands-based independent cultural foundation. Its mission is to “make a tangible impact on civil society, citizen initiatives, public opinion and policy proposals to combat the fragmenting forces ...
*
European Dancehouse Network
*
European Film Academy
The European Film Academy is an initiative of a group of European filmmakers who came together in Berlin on the occasion of the first presentation of the European Film Awards in November 1988.
The Academy—under the name of European Cinema Soc ...
*
European Museum Forum
The European Museum Forum is a museum organization under the Council of Europe. It is an independent, non-profit-making charity, registered in the United Kingdom and founded in 1977.
The European Museum Forum organizes the annual European Museum ...
*
University Network of the European Capitals of Culture
The University Network of the European Capitals of Culture(UNeECC), an international non-profit association, was founded upon the initiative of thUniversity of Pécsin Pécs, Hungary in December 2006 by 15 founding members.
UNeECC invites membersh ...
Policies by sector
Arts and Culture
The
European Commission
The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body ...
runs the EU's Culture Programme, which typically runs in 7 year intervals. The last Culture Programme was called
Culture 2000
Culture 2000 was a seven-year European Union (EU) programme, which had among its key objectives to preserve and enhance Europe's cultural heritage. Its duration was from 2000 to 2006, and it had a budget of €236.5 million.
Culture 2000 provided ...
. For the next ''Culture Programme (2007-2013)'' was spent €400 million. Current program is called "Creative Europe" (2014-2020).
Sports
Sport is largely the domain of the member states, with the EU mostly playing an indirect role. Recently the EU launched an anti-doping convention. The role of the EU might increase in the future, if (for example) the
Treaty of Lisbon
The Treaty of Lisbon (initially known as the Reform Treaty) is an international agreement that amends the two treaties which form the constitutional basis of the European Union (EU). The Treaty of Lisbon, which was signed by the EU member s ...
were to be ratified by all member states.
Other policies of the EU have affected sports, such as the freedom of employment which was at the core of the
Bosman ruling, which prohibited national football leagues from imposing quotas on foreign players with EU nationality.
Languages
The languages of the European Union are
language
Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of ...
s used by people within the member states of the
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...
. They include the 24 official
languages of the European Union
The European Union (EU) has 24 official languages, of which threeEnglish, French and Germanhave the higher status of "procedural" languages of the European Commission (whereas the European Parliament accepts all official languages as working l ...
plus many others. EU policy is to encourage all its citizens to be
multilingual
Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population. More than half of all E ...
; specifically, it encourages them to be able to speak two languages in addition to their
mother tongue. The reason for this is not only to promote easier communication between Europeans, but also to encourage greater
tolerance and respect for diversity. A number of EU funding programmes actively promote language learning and
linguistic diversity
Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of met ...
. The content of
educational systems remains the responsibility of individual member states. Further information can be found at
language policy.
Impact of cultural policies
European identity
Economic development
Expansion of the European Union
Criticisms
See also
*
Bologna Process
*
Cultural policy
*
Culture of Europe
The culture of Europe is rooted in its art, architecture, film, different types of music, economics, literature, and philosophy. European culture is largely rooted in what is often referred to as its "common cultural heritage".
Definition
T ...
*
Educational policies and initiatives of the European Union
In the European Union education is at the responsibility of its Member States and their Ministries of education that they have; in such, the European Union institutions play only a supporting and overseeing role. According to Art. 165 of the Tr ...
*
European Communities
*
Europeanisation
Europeanisation (or Europeanization, see spelling differences) refers to a number of related phenomena and patterns of change:
*The process in which a notionally non-European subject (be it a culture, a language, a city or a nation) adopts a number ...
*
Greater Region
SaarLorLux or Saar-Lor-Lux (also ''SarLorLux'' in French), a portmanteau of Saarland, Lorraine and Luxembourg, is a euroregion of five regional authorities located in four European states. The term has also been applied to cooperations of sev ...
*
Lifelong Learning Programme 2007–2013
The Lifelong Learning Programme 2007–2013 (previously referred to as the "Integrated action programme in the field of lifelong learning" or the "Integrated programme") was the European Union programme for education and training.
Introduction
...
*
Religion in the European Union
Religion in the European Union is diverse. The largest religion in the EU is Christianity, which accounted for 72.8% of EU population . Smaller groups include those of Islam, Buddhism, Judaism, Hinduism, and some East Asian religion ...
*
Trans-cultural diffusion
In cultural anthropology and cultural geography, cultural diffusion, as conceptualized by Leo Frobenius in his 1897/98 publication ''Der westafrikanische Kulturkreis'', is the spread of cultural items—such as ideas, styles, religions, technolo ...
References
Further reading
* Gielen, P. (2015). ''No Culture, No Europe. On the Foundation of Politics.'' Valiz: Amsterdam.
External links
Language and culture section euractiv.com
Europe of cultures50 years of artistic creation and cultural life from the 27 countries of the European Union with Ina
EU Culture Portal (archived)Euronews - Culture*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cultural Policies Of The European Union
European culture
Politics of the European Union