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

Preliminary assessmentof the impact ofEU enlargementThe results of the questionnaire confirmed the findings of most studies and articles on the role ofculture in the enlargement. The general perception has been that the EU’s enlargement did nothave much impact on cultural policies in those countries of central and eastern Europe which hadjoined the Union in 2004.During the run-up to accession artists and cultural operators in those countries were notspecifically targeted by information campaigns and there was very little information as to what theaccession might bring to this sector. On the whole people working in the cultural sectors of thecountries which were joining the Union supported the move to join it.There was very little assessment of the possible consequences of enlargement of the EU on thecountries which were becoming members. Several authors of the profiles of individual countries, inthe Compendium of cultural policies and trends in Europe, however, suggested that accession tothe EU had been directly linked to the development and reform of cultural policy in their respectivecountries (ERICarts/Council of Europe, 2005).The author of the Hungarian country report, for example, claimed that the protracted process ofjoining the European Union was a major factor in shaping cultural policy in Hungary, althoughthe impact of the accession itself has yet to be assessed. He also acknowledges that theEU demands comply with international standards in certain areas, while others are left to bedetermined internally.The author of the Slovenian country profile concluded that although `culture’ still enjoys somespecial attention from Slovenia’s politicians, it is largely rhetorical and the new social climate hasmeant that culture has been pushed to the margins of political agenda-setting. According to thepreliminary assessments of the results of the enlargement on economic and social climate inSlovenia, much had changed.A year after enlargement, economic indicators in the post-socialist countries were slowlyimproving, and the market economy and the rule of law were becoming stronger. Even thoughthese countries were economically still lagging behind old member states and will not catch upin the short-term, overall public attitudes towards accession has remained optimistic. Because of62Part 2 Preliminary assessment of the impact of EU enlargement