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

One of the recommendations in the Feasibility study concerning the creation of a Europeanobservatory of cultural co-operation 84 was that additional impetus should be given todeveloping and collecting cultural statistics. The findings of my study have confirmed the need forextra effort in cultural statistics, to facilitate an improved understanding of the cultural sector ingeneral and cultural cooperation in particular; it will be costly both in terms of time and resources.As culture is not part of the acquis communautaire, it is difficult to find resources and, as it is nota clear responsibility, there always seem to be other priorities.It is clear that the work of the Council of Europe and the European Audio-visual Observatory,as well as UNESCO, have had much more impact on the improvement of statistics in transitioncountries than has Eurostat. The lack of formulated shared policy on culture, has meant thatthere is no legal obligation to monitor quantitative data at a European level. There is in turn nopressure from the European statistical authorities for harmonization (as is there is in some otherpolicy areas).Other issuesSeveral other issues of direct relevance for culture were not included in the questionnaire;the two particularly important ones being community funding programmes and intellectualproperty rights (IPR).85Community funding programmes, such as Culture 2000, for instance, have been the most visibleevidence of accession being linked to cultural policies. This explains why there has been andcontinues to be so much interest in them and so many studies assessing their impact on culture.However, as noted earlier, the scope of this study did not permit us to analyze these in detail, andthe whole issue of funding has been tackled only marginally.86The impact of different funding schemes on cultural policies in countries in transition has beenrelatively easy to assess. It has mainly been in the form of grants and other financial incentives forculture and arts. However, it also included changes in financing mechanisms in the new memberstates, transfer of knowledge and `best practices’, as well as enhancing cooperation which hasresulted in new partnerships and cross-border projects.While Community funding programmes have remained the most visible aspect of the EuropeanUnion’s involvement in the field of culture, their importance and potential have often beenoverestimated. Before the start of negotiations and in the first phase of the accession to the EU,58Part 2 The impact of EU enlargement: results of the survey of researchers and policy-makers