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

obstacles encountered during the period of evaluation of the results of the Council of Europe’sproject also apply when trying to understand the confusion in the approach to culture at EU level.The third reason for the lack of comprehensive research is the sheer range of policy approacheswithin the cultural sector itself. Some believe that this means it is better to simply stick to studyingspecific policy fields, such as book policy, audio-visual policy or copyright issues. However, sometopics, such as mobility of artists and cultural professionals, or regulation of markets for culturalgoods and services, require a more holistic approach that goes across more than one sector. Ihave used many of those valuable studies on specific sectors for this research because it wouldhave been totally impracticable to try to gather original information on each of these issues.Focus of the researchFollowing on from these preliminary reflections, this study focusses on three main topics.The first focusses on methodological problems relevant for comparative research of culturalpolicies in Europe. In my view, these methodological problems and debates have contributed tothe rather confusing treatment of culture and cultural policies in the European Union. Some ofthese issues include reflections on the existence or non-existence of European cultural policy,debates about the need to have a European cultural policy or, for example, the consequencesof the way in which policies on culture in general and policies about audio-visual matters areadministratively kept apart by the European Commission. Even though there have been manyvaluable studies of these topics, it was necessary to repeat some of the findings of those studieshere, as they are crucial for understanding the position of culture in the process of Europeanintegration.The second part of the study gives an overview of different policies and policy areas that havealready had an impact on culture, or might do so in the future. My aim was to identify in particularthose policies, shared by different countries, which have been establishing links between culturaland economic aspects of production and distribution of cultural goods and services.In order to find out more about researchers’ and policy-makers’ perception of the importanceof EU enlargement for cultural policies in post-socialist countries, I surveyed a small numberof respondents in ten selected countries to see if these policy areas, which I had identified asrelevant for culture, have been perceived as such and if there was any evidence of direct orindirect impact on policy-making. The results of this survey, as well as the results of several related14Introduction