Spaans voorzitterschap wil meer aandacht voor culturele ontwikkeling (en)

The Spanish Minister of Culture, Ángeles González-Sinde, has appeared today at the meeting of the Commission on Culture i of the European Parliament to present the Spanish Presidency's main lines of action in the sphere of culture, primarily based on three priority areas: maximising the cultural potential with the emphasis on local and regional development; consolidating culture as an economic growth and social cohesion factor; and developing and disseminating digital cultural content.

“Placing culture among the priorities on the European agenda will not only contribute to speeding up economic recovery and job creation, but also reinforce civic responsibility and make the European project stronger”, said the Minister of Culture during her speech. She also underlined the importance of safeguarding cultural diversity, respecting and defending all European languages so that all European citizens can deal with the institutions of the Union in their own mother tongue.

Maximise the cultural with the emphasis on local and regional development

The European Heritage Label Community initiative, initially promoted by France and Spain, will be implemented through a legislative proposal from the Commission on Culture during the Spanish Presidency of the EU.The main objectives of this initiative are promoting the European identity and the participation of citizens in building Europe; promoting European cultural heritage; and sustainable development through cultural tourism.

The Minister also announced that this will be discussed during the next Council of Ministers of Culture to be held on 11 and 12 May, and has declared her commitment to making progress in this area. The protection and promotion of European cultural heritage will also be the primary objective of the conference of experts that will take place in the city of Cáceres, a European Heritage site, from 19 to 21 April.

Consolidation of culture as a factor for economic growth and social cohesion

During her speech, González-Sinde highlighted the contribution of culture and creative industries to creating employment and economic growth, and she therefore announced the Spanish Presidency's intention to help develop it and to make the most of the opportunities that this industry has to offer in order to consolidate culture as a factor for economic growth and social cohesion.

She underlined the upcoming 2nd European Forum on Economy and Culture and the informal meeting of ministers of culture, which will also examine the future Green Paper of the Commission on Culture Industries. The formal presentation of this Green Paper is planned for the Council of Ministers of Culture on 10 and 11 May.

Debate about "Europeana" and the impact of digitisation on the film industry.

The Spanish Presidency's third priority in the area of culture is to develop and disseminate digital cultural content, to not only adapt European culture to these changes, but also to lead this change. During her speech, the Minister specified how this will be done, by encouraging the implementation of the digitalisation of our cultural heritage to allow it to be disseminated; by promoting cultural creation on the internet; and by applying digital technologies to European cultural services.

This third priority will be examined in-depth at the meeting of the Council of Ministers of Culture in May and at a seminar on the digitalisation of cultural content, digital libraries and copyright, which will be held on 12 and 13 of May in Madrid.

Regarding the future of the Europeana digital library, the Spanish Presidency will ask the Council to adopt some of the conclusions aimed at reaching a consensus on making Europeana a Community initiative. The objective is to encourage more digitalisation, achieve greater financial stability, and provide the digital library with management structures that are better prepared to make digitalised European heritage accessible.

Finally, in the area of digital content development and dissemination, the Spanish Presidency of the European Union will lead the discussion on the challenge represented by the integration of digital technologies on the dissemination and screening of films in Europe. The seminar entitled The impact of digital technology on film screenings will be held in Barcelona on 5 and 6 March and aims to examine how this transformation will affect the future of cinemas.