White paper on creativity - ebla center

Chapter 2intercultural dialogue for long-termstrategic European initiatives meant tocontinue after 2008. The EuropeanYear highlighted, moreover, theimportance of the new Europeanagenda on culture in the age ofglobalisation. The actions on theagenda in favour of cultural diversityand intercultural dialogue constituteone of the three major objectives. Tenmillion euros were allocated to supportan information campaign, financeenquiries and studies on interculturaldialogue and jointly fund sevenEuropean lighthouse projects and 27national projects (one from eachMember State) on the theme ofintercultural dialogue through theEuropean Union.Since the EU has a favourable view ofthe application of the UNESCOConvention on the Protection andPromotion of the Diversity of CulturalExpressions (Santagata - Foa, 2004),the Agenda also affirms the externaldimension of culture in Europe.The statement on the Agenda thusacknowledges the need for a Europeanculture strategy open to diversity inEurope, and at the same time open tothe world. It suggests measures tostrengthen the importance of culture asa component in political dialogue withpartner countries and regions in therest of the world, promote culturalexchanges, and systematically integrateculture in development programmesand projects.In order to support specific actions inACP countries i , the EuropeanCommission suggests creating an EU-ACP Cultural Fund as a joint Europeancontribution to supporting themarketing, and in some cases theproduction, of ACP cultural products.This Fund will encourage thedevelopment of local markets andindustries and will improve access forACP cultural products to Europeanmarkets. The European Commissionhas proposed allocating a Communitycontribution to the Fund of around 30million euros for the period 2007–2013 and has invited the MemberStates to top up the fund with furthercontributions.One key feature of the new policy isthe proposal to introduce a more highlystructured system of co-operationbetween Member States and the EUinstitutions in the cultural sector, basedon an “open co-ordination method”,which was used successfully to organisecollaboration between Member Statesand the EU in the area of educationand training, youth and socialprotection.The European Commission will thenlaunch 2009 as the European Year ofCreativity and Innovation, with the aimof promoting a wide-ranging action toboost this field.In addition to the Commission’s role,the European Parliament has assumedan equally important stance. In 2003Parliament put the topic on the agendaby adopting special resolutions on thecultural industries. Since 2003 and therecent Bono Report, the Europeanparliament has continued to supportWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 45