During the February and March meetings of the EP CULT Committee, discussions on cultural issues were extremely limited. In April, however, culture was back on the agenda as Claire Gibault (ALDE, France) presented her draft report on The social status of artists.

During its February meeting (27-28) and in addition to organising a public hearing on ‘The role of sport in the EU’, the EP CULT Committee had invited two Commission’s officials: Commissioner Orban and Director General Odile Quintin. On the 27th, Commissioner Orban, responsible for multilingualism, addressed the MEPs for the first time since his confirmation hearing of November 2006. The objective of Orban’s presentation was to emphasize the political and transversal aspects of his portfolio. He announced the three main lines of his programme (languages as an integral element of life long learning and intercultural dialogue, the use of languages to reinforce the political dialogue with the citizen and multilingualism as a tool to promote competition and growth) as well as the organisation of an intergovernmental conference in 2008 to be followed by the adoption of a new strategy document in the second half of the year. In their interventions, MEPs underlined as expected in this kind of debate the status of regional and minority languages. On the same day, DG EAC Director General Odile Quintin presented the latest developments of the European Institute of Technology dossier and answered in a clear and open way the many questions of the MEPs on, among others, the type of the degrees to be awarded by the Institute and the necessity for the Member States to reach an agreement on the recognition of such degrees.

During its March meeting (21-22), the EP CULT Committee discussed once again the Television without Frontiers directive on which the Council hopes to adopt a common position at the end of May. While positions are converging, the Council and the EP are still divided, especially on the issue of product placement. On the same day, the EC also presented its communication plan aiming at developing a vision based on shared values (peace, sustainability, etc.), which should then be discussed within a ‘European public space’. MEPs strongly concurred on the need for the Commission to develop its communication strategy in order to strengthen its democratic accountability. Another item on the agenda of the March meeting was the presentation by Marie-Hélène Descamps (EPP-ED, France) of the progress with her own initiative report on the i2010 digital libraries project. A Commission official answered the MEPs’ questions on the issue and announced the launch in 2008 of a portal, which would compile in a new form the existing national digital libraries. He also announced that a first meeting of Member States’ experts on copyrights will be convened in June.

In April (10-11), the EP CULT Committee organised a hearing on the Protection of cultural heritage in Cyprus and discussed Claire Gibault’s own initiative report on The social status of artists (to read the last draft of this report, click here). This report, which is set out to provide ‘a European status for artists’, focuses on ‘the improvement of the situation of artists in Europe’ (legal and institutional framework as well as visa and work permit arrangements), on ‘lifelong training and retraining’ and on ‘guaranteeing artistic and cultural training from the earliest possible age’. Even if the drafting of this report has been welcomed by a majority of European cultural organisations as an opportunity to discuss crucial issues affecting artistic practice across Europe, the consultation process has been weak and the deadline to submit amendments extremely short. In order to give a more balanced approach on the situation of the artists across the EU, PEARLE* (the European League of Employers Associations in the Performing Arts sector) presented a series of recommendations which EFAH strongly supported (to read the recommendations, click here). Among other recommendations, PEARLE*’s amendments draw the EP’s attention to the existing know-how, practices, experiences, research and studies available in the performing art sector and underline the need for regular public consultation when discussing such crucial issues for artists as their social status or the regulation of their professional activities.

The national bodies, which will be in charge of selecting and submitting one project on intercultural dialogue per country to the European Commission for co-financing, will have met for the first time on 25th April in Brussels. Read the rest of this entry »