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

Prologue When I decided to research the role and possible impact ofthe 2004 European enlargement on culture, I tested the idea with several colleagues. Some triedto dissuade me from pursuing this research claiming, in a friendly manner, but with firm conviction,that European Union (EU) enlargement had very little to do with culture. This reflects a commonbelief that, simply because culture does not figure prominently in the acquis communautaire1– the umbrella term which covers all the EU’s current laws and policies – it is only marginallyaffected by the EU enlargement.In some ways this is true. If we think about the impact of EU enlargement as meaning solely thosechanges that have resulted from harmonizing legislation which was explicitly related to the culturalfield (such as audio-visual policy), it would be very difficult to justify this research. However, I havealways understood EU enlargement as a process that goes beyond the technical adjustment ofpolicies and laws in any policy field. This is just the surface.The European Union is a complex sphere of interlinked rules and interests, policies,recommendations and directives. When entering this universe, it is difficult to imagine thatany sector or any segment of life can be ignored. Even if the European Commission has notbeen directly regulating some fields, societies have been going through profound changes andeveryone who lives and works in that environment is being affected. This is particularly evidentin the transition countries – a term which broadly covers the post-socialist nations – which havebeen going through many changes and reforms.In my research I have tried to look at this sphere and to identify some of those policies,developments or events that have had an impact on culture. While trying to assess the currentsituation and developments, I have tried to look at possible future scenarios for EU involvement inthe field of culture. One of my main assumptions was that in the future, the regulation of culturalmarkets will be one of the key, if not the most important, element of cultural policies. I wanted tofind out how Europe has been responding to trends of commodification in all aspects of culturein order to see if the EU’s often publicly declared priority of promoting cultural diversity and `unityin diversity’ was really accompanied by the most effective policy instruments. Has Europe found away to integrate adequately both cultural and economic aspects of cultural goods and services inits policies?In that context, the study tried to identify those `other’ common, (in other words, shared) EUpolicies that affect cultural policies as well as to assess such influences – can they be consideredas positive or negative? How have new EU member states been responding to change? Are theresome policies that should be adopted at the EU level in order to counterbalance the impact ofcross-cutting measures, such as taxation, for instance, on cultural policies?I have been much encouraged by the global movements for the protection of cultural diversity andthe role of the EU during the negotiations in 2005 on the UNESCO Convention on the protection8Prologue