Tony Bennett, Differing diversities - Council of Europe

The cultural policies of the European Unionand cultural diversityResearch position paper 3By Cris ShoreGoldsmiths CollegeUniversity of London“Culture is both an economic factor and a factor in social integration andcitizenship; for that reason, it has an important role to play in meeting the newchallenges facing the Community, such as globalisation, the informationsociety, social cohesion and the creation of employment.” (EuropeanParliament, 2000: 1)Introduction: the scope and context of European Union culturalpolicyTowards the end of his life Jean Monnet, the French statesman and celebratedfounding father of the European Communities, is reputed to have said, when lookingback on a lifetime’s work dedicated to creating a united Europe, “if we were tostart all over again, we would start with culture”. In fact, Monnet never said anythingof the kind. 1 What is interesting about this apocryphal quote is not its historicalinaccuracy but the fact that it is still frequently cited by European Union policyelites to support the argument for increased intervention in the field of culture.This is significant for two reasons. First, because it indicates the growing importancethat culture has acquired among European Union policy professionals andtheorists of European integration since the 1980s. Second, because it highlights akey point of this paper; namely, that European Union cultural policies cannot beunderstood outside of the wider context of the political project for European integration2 and the European Union’s transition from a free trade area to a fledgling,albeit still ill-defined, federal state.To date, there has been little specialised analysis of European Union action in thefield of culture. This is partly because European Union cultural policy, in the strictlegal sense, is a relatively recent phenomenon: until the 1992 Maastricht Treaty,culture was not a recognised area of European Community competence. However,it also reflects the lack of status political scientists and European Union analystshave traditionally accorded to culture and, until recently, the narrow definitions of__________1. See Scott and Kirby, 1995: 40.2. This project is typically referred to in French as construction européenne, a concept that does nottranslate easily into English.107