Tony Bennett, Differing diversities - Council of Europe

Differing diversities2. Action by the Community shall be aimed at encouraging co-operation betweenMember States and, if necessary, supporting and supplementing their action inthe following areas:– improvement of the knowledge and dissemination of the culture and historyof the European peoples;– conservation and safeguarding of cultural heritage of European significance;– non-commercial cultural exchanges;– artistic and literary creation, including in the audiovisual sector (EuropeanCommission, 1992: 13).According to Forrest (1994), Article 128 “is a model application of ‘subsidiarity’as it gives the European Union no legal mandate to lead or control policies in thecultural sector; simply a requirement to ‘encourage’ cultural co-operation betweenstates and support and supplement their action ‘if necessary’”. Paragraph 4 ofArticle 128 states that “the Community shall take cultural aspects into account inits action under other provisions of the Treaty”. This marks an important recognitionthat culture is a cross-cutting issue (like environment matters), thereby allowingcultural agencies to claim a greater share of resources from programmeswhose objectives are not specifically cultural (Sandell, 1997: 271). Of course, definitionsof culture are notoriously problematic and could arguably include all areasof European Union policy. 1 However, precisely to prevent any centralisation ofcultural policy, paragraph 5 places three constraints on European Union culturalaction. These stipulate that:i. any action must come after consultation with the Committee of the Regions;ii. any harmonisation of laws under Article 128 is ruled out;iii. any measure proposed by the Commission must obtain unanimous supportfrom the Council of Ministers.One criticism of Article 128 is that its terms of reference are extraordinarily vague,and that phrases like “contributing to the flowering of cultures” are not justiceable.Another is that European Union cultural policies, like those of most memberstates, are often contradictory in practice. How does one celebrate national andregional cultural diversity while simultaneously “bringing the common culturalheritage to the fore”? When does celebrating cultural difference hive into chauvinismand cultural nationalism? And what exactly does this shared “cultural heritage”consist of that Europeans should be so unaware of it? These questions areparticularly germane to debates about promoting cultural diversity. Since the1990s, and largely in response to these problems, the European Union has adoptedthe slogan “unity in diversity” as its central policy motif. Instead of promoting thenotion of a single culture shared by all Europeans, the theme of Europe as a mosaic__________1. This point is clearly recognised in the Commission’s 1996 report which notes that, on the basis ofthe accepted Unesco definition of culture, “the entire European structure, the Treaties themselves andall the texts they have generated may be regarded as cultural expressions and works.” (EuropeanCommission, 1996: 3).114