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

ights.56 Since the mid-1990s, the European Council has adopted or amended severaldirectives, and, in recent years, the EU has put a special emphasis on copyright in the `informationsociety’, trying to formulate legislation which can cope with technological development andconvergence, such as the use of television material on the internet.Competition and mergersThe compatibility of cultural policy with the competition rules has been a further issue. One of theoften-quoted instruments, the Resolution on the application of national fixed book-price system,which has been in effect since 2001, has aimed to exclude books from the general competitionpolicy and single-market regulations.57 Although the fixed book-price regulations fall underthe exclusive aegis of member states, there have been several cases where the Commissionhas intervened in pricing agreements for cross-border sales, made between `undertakings’– enterprises – in the same language area. Special treatment has also been applied for theaudio-visual sector, which was confirmed by the resolution on subsidies for films and the audiovisualindustry, highlighting the importance of public funding of cultural industries to promote andpreserve cultural diversity.Finally, mergers and acquisitions, which can have a direct impact on the diversity of culturalexpressions within the internal market; this is especially important in the audio-visual media,including the music industry. The European Commission has been assessing the possible impactof these mergers and acquisitions both before and after the merger takes place. Regulationsabout mergers and acquisitions have changed since 1989 and certain space for the respect ofthe specificity of culture has been reserved. In practice, however, Commission decisions have notseemed to take this specificity into account.5842Part 2 Cultural issues in the process of EU enlargement