Why we need European cultural policies: the impact of EU ...

Measures directly referring to culture make up only a small portion of the acquis communautaire.Therefore, any assessment of the impact of EU enlargement on culture means exploring theeffects that EU regulations – for example, for the harmonization of fiscal, social or tax policies,competition policies, free circulation of goods, people and services, and so on – may have hadon cultural policies. Despite the principle of subsidiarity or numerous, `exceptions of culture fromgeneral rules’, the space for intervention by national governments in the cultural field has beennarrowing. Traditional divisions between different policy areas are changing and it is sometimesdifficult for national governments to determine what is internal and what constitutes foreign policy.It is also very important to acknowledge the jurisprudence of the European Court of Justice. Thatcourt has occasionally has been called upon to interpret ambiguous rules affecting culture. Thesehave not only included cases about state aid in the audio-visual sector, particularly affecting publicservice broadcasters (Pauwels 2003), but also cases about interpretation of the fixed book pricerules or social security regulations, which can be important for the mobility of artists. As Europeanlaw has been growing and becoming more complex, it is logical to expect that there will be morecultural disputes requiring judgment in this court.Ambiguous attitudesIn spite of these developments, the position of the EU towards cultural policies can stillbe described as the protection of the status quo and a rather defensive approach to policymaking.As there is no articulated common cultural policy, culture has found itself in a ratherambiguous position.On one hand, there has been continuous lobbying from cultural activists and policy-makers torecognize the special role and the importance of culture and to give culture a more prominentplace; on the other hand, EU member states have been unable to achieve a consensus on howto make policies about culture at the EU level. Culture has been generally evoked only when itneeds to be `exempt’ from certain regulations, but it is not likely that culture will achieve a moreprominent place in the EU agenda unless it is included in mainstream policy-making at EU level.This ambiguous position of culture is even more evident in the new EU member states andcandidate countries.7 Because, with a few exceptions cultural matters are not an explicit partof the EU agenda, and because defining policy priorities in the new member countries has beenprofoundly influenced by those priorities set already by Brussels, culture is lagging behind othersectors. These factors tend to mean that national governments’ cultural policy-making, where and12Introduction