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

Fragile cultural marketsThere is an ongoing debate in Europe, not only about the future of cultural and media policy inthe light of the EU’s strengthening of competition law, but also about the impact of the WorldTrade Organization’s measures to liberalize trade. However, so far, there has been no specialconsideration for the fragile cultural markets in the new member states. Western Europeancountries, with a long tradition of the market economy, are always on the lookout for innovativepolicies that will reverse the historical trade deficit in the import/export of cultural goods andservices, but it is easy to understand why such topics are only beginning to be discussed in thetransition countries.Most of the new member states have focussed, up to now, on issues such as preserving andreforming their cultural infrastructure, on the functioning of specific cultural policy areas and onthe search for additional and alternative sources of funding. They have had little time or energywith which to fine-tune cultural policies to the rules of the market economy, nor to develop policiesthat will balance the cultural and economic aspects of cultural goods and services.Respondents to the questionnaire did not express too much concern about regulations on the freemovement of goods. They generally perceived the strengthening of rules on illegal export of artobjects as positive.It is important to note that one of the topics widely debated internationally – the trade of culturalgoods and services – has not been perceived as an issue within the enlarged Europe. In spiteof the accession of new member states, which might be thought to create something of animbalance in the trade of cultural goods and services within Europe, nothing has been devised tointervene in the European cultural market beyond some (limited) funding, certain provisions of theDirective on Television without frontiers, and the Resolution on the application of national fixedbook-price systems. What’s more, the latter two measures had nothing to do with enlargement,they were introduced or envisaged before that began.It is doubtful whether the generally symbolic funding programmes, together with the culturalpolicies of individual member states can address the imbalances, or whether more proactiveEuropean Commission involvement is required. At the moment, achieving a more balancedexchange of European cultural contents within the European market is an issue that themember states have to address on their own. As they mostly rely on financial instruments, it isunderstandable that there is concern about the limited ability of new member states to invest inthe production and distribution of their cultural goods and services.Need for better dataThe questionnaire’s last topic was about improvements of data gathering and analysis in thefield of culture that might have resulted from enlargement. The statistics issue illustrates whathappens where there is very little harmonization and consequently no legally backed basis for datagathering at the European level. It is logical to expect that the harmonization of statistics in otherPreliminary assessment of the impact of EU enlargement65