On 3 March 2007 the European Commission officially launched its new Culture programme 2007-2013 during the arts festival BRXL BRAVO in Brussels. In the presence of Commissioner Figel’ and the highest Culture officials of the Directorate General for Education and Culture, the agenda of the event emphasized the dialogue with the European cultural sector through a series of roundtables on ways to improve the implementation of the programme.

With a public consultation on the management of the Culture programme having been requested for a long time by the sector and by EFAH in particular, the participatory format of the event should be applauded. However, the timing of the 3 March meeting (a week after the 2007 applications deadline) and the fact that the majority of the organisations represented were not actually those managing projects funded by the programme, limited the potential outcomes of the debates. The exercise still raised important issues such as the communication flow with the Executive Agency and the necessity of long-term support to cultural co-operation projects. When closing the debates, Vladimir Sucha (Director for Culture in DG EAC) and Xavier Troussard (Acting Head of the Culture Unit) announced the publication of a summary of the debates as soon as possible and promised to take on board as many requests as legally and administratively possible. They also announced the publication of the 2008 Call of the new Culture programme 2007-2013 before the summer with an application deadline in October/November.