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

This included information about Chapter 20 of the acquis communautaire on culture and audiovisualpolicy, as well as chapters on taxation, statistics, intellectual property rights, competitionpolicy and the free movement of goods and persons.Compendium of cultural policies and trends in EuropeThis was an extremely useful source for information about the changes resulting from theenlargement.64 Even though it offered rather general information, it was valuable because itused the same methodology to monitor cultural policies in all countries covered by this project;it also documented the most important trends, including updates on legislation, cultural policypriorities and orientation. Although the Compendium did not refer specifically to legal documentsor policy recommendations originating from the European Union, it still contained muchinformation about the process of harmonization as well as reflections of the authors of countryprofiles about current changes in their respective countries.QuestionnaireFollowing the initial analysis of available data and literature, a questionnaire was designed andcirculated.65 The objectives were first, to provide a basis for comparative analysis to testor confirm trends and changes occurring in cultural policies as a consequence of theEU enlargement observed through existing resources. The second aim was to gather opinionsfrom individuals who were either directly involved in the process of accession or knowledgeableabout the issues.I wanted to see if the policies identified in the initial research as having had an impact on culturewere perceived as such by experts and policy-makers, and also to find out which issues theyconsidered pertinent and which they did not see as relevant. Another aim was to canvas whetherso far – in other words since enlargement – there have been any significant changes in culturalpolicies which connect with other policies identified as having possible impact on culture.The questionnaire consisted of two types of questions, some of which requested a personalassessment by the respondents and some of which requested specific data.Initially, one of the ideas of this research was to include a comparison of cultural policies of newmember countries with those of old member countries. The point of this was to see if enlargementin 2004 had had more or less of an impact on cultural policies, when compared with 1995enlargement. However, such a comparison is not feasible: first, because the European Union isconstantly changing 66 and secondly, because in the new member countries major reforms inother social and economic spheres are ongoing or anticipated. Thus, analysis based solely oncultural policies could be misleading.44Part 2 The impact of EU enlargement: results of the survey of researchers and policy-makers