Forum over Europees cultureel erfgoed in teken van innovatie en duurzaamheid (en)

Barcelona will this week be hosting the Second European Forum on Cultural Industries, on 29 and 30 March. The event, which will be attended by authorities and professionals from every sphere of European culture, will also act as a prologue to the Informal Meeting of Ministers of Culture, being held in the same city on 31 March.

Representatives from EU institutions and the various Member States will be attending the event, along with high-level experts on each of the subjects to be discussed; technical experts from the European Commission's working groups; and representatives from the cultural industry, the economy and the training sector. In total, more than 500 professionals and 70 speakers are expected to attend the event.

The event will be opened at 12.30 at the Casa Llotja de Mar, Passeig d'Isabel II, 1, by Spain's Minister of Culture, Ángeles González-Sinde; Doris Pack, chair of the European Parliament's Committee on Culture and Education; Odile Quintin, the European Commission's Director General for Culture; Miquel Valls, President of the Official Chamber of Commerce, Industry and International Trade of Barcelona; Jordi Hereu, the Mayor of Barcelona; and the writer and science populariser, Eduard Punset.

Green paper on cultural and creative industries

The main point of interest during the first day of the event will be the unveiling of the preliminary version of the “Green paper on cultural and creative industries”, produced by the European Commission on the basis of prior discussions between the cultural industries platform and the “ad hoc” governmental working party. The data and statistics in this report are highly revealing, since they provide a real map of European culture and its habits and trends.

After this, the chair of the European Parliament's Committee on Culture will discuss the proposals made and the challenges facing cultural industries in Europe today.

The work agenda planned for Monday 29 March will also involve making progress on and looking in greater depth at the five areas for discussion to be covered during this event:

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  The financing of cultural industries (financial intervention mechanisms, SME sustainability, etc.)
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  Raising professional standards in cultural industries (new skills arising from the move to digitisation, mobility of talent, etc.)
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  Internationalisation of cultural products (local production in global markets, internationalisation and cooperation strategies, etc.)
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  Intellectual property and copyright management.
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  Regional and local development (culture and regional development, European programmes for local and regional development).

Closing ceremony for the event

Discussion on these five thematic areas will be expanded and further developed on Tuesday 30 March, ending with plenary working sessions and speeches by the various European culture ministers (at 16.50).

The event will be brought to a close by Ángeles González-Sinde, Minister of Culture of Spain; Fadila Laanan, Minister of Culture of the French-speaking community in Belgium; Bernd Neumann, Minister of State of the Federal Chancellery, Federal Government Delegate for Culture and Media, Germany; Marcus Rantalla, Minister-Designate for Culture of Finland; Gabriela Canavilhas, Minister of Culture of Portugal; and Androulla Vassiliou, European Commissioner for Culture and Education.