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

while enlargement negotiations were in progress, there were some changes to the Communityprogrammes, aimed at making it easier to take part in them. In the Agenda 2000 the Commissionnoted that the participation of the countries of central and eastern Europe in programmes for theimplementation of the acquis communautaire would provide, `a useful preparation for accessionin familiarizing the candidate countries and their citizens with the Union’s policies and workingmethods’, and enhance their ability to apply the acquis communautaire and not just to incorporateit into national law.47Besides the MEDIA and Culture 2000 programmes, cultural projects can be financed fromseveral other Community programmes 48 as well as from pre-accession funds.49 In his studyof structural funds, enlargement and the cultural sector, Mercouris notes that the structural fundsrepresented an important source for financing culture in the EU member states. However, whenhe completed his study in 2002, with the exception of Bulgaria and Romania, candidate countrieswere not making use of the cultural components of the structural funds through PHARE, ISPA andSAPARD (Mercouris 2002).Culture in the EU Treaty and acquis communautaireCulture can be found in only a few articles of the EU Treaty. Article 3 refers to general supportfor the promotion of culture and education, Article 5 explains the principle of subsidiarity andArticle 30 refers to the free circulation of cultural products. Article 87.3.b, which highlightsthe importance of culture in the context of state aid regulations, provides an exception fromthese rules about aid to states in cases where aid is granted to promote culture and heritageconservation. This only applies where such aid does not significantly affect trading conditionsand competition in the Community, or as Article 87 puts it, `to an extent contrary to thecommon interest’.Article 151 is certainly the most important reference point for culture in the Treaty.50However, given our understanding of the broader scope of cultural policy, which includes anypolicies that have an impact on culture, there are many more provisions in the Treaty and manyparts of the acquis communautaire, which should be taken into consideration. Articles 23, 24, 39and 55 of the Treaty refer to the free circulation of goods and services and the free movement ofpeople within the Union. Article 30 limits free circulation of goods when it concerns the import,export or transit of cultural goods of special artistic, historic or archaeological value. In 1992, theCouncil of the European Union adopted the directive on the export of cultural goods 51 that wasamended by two directives adopted in 1996 and 2001.5240Part 2 Cultural issues in the process of EU enlargement