Spaanse, Duitse, Finse, Portugese en Waalse ministers van cultuur: "Cultuur moet onderdeel worden van EU-2020 strategie"

The Ministers of Culture of Spain, Germany, Finland, Portugal and the French-speaking community of Belgium all spoke out to declare culture an "engine for economic growth" during the closing session of the European Forum on Cultural Industries, held in Barcelona.

They therefore called for culture to be included as one of the components in the EU's economic strategy for the coming decade, known as “Europe 2020”.

On the issue of digitisation, González-Sinde stressed that the role of governments was to "monitor and preserve the heritage" that intellectual creations represent "to prevent any loss of forms of culture and expression during this transitional period".

She said it was important to avoid “a landscape in which those with major financing" are the only ones able to get their work into the market.

The German minister, Bernd Neumann, called for "legal guarantees" for the intellectual property of creators and for investments in culture, saying that in his country this sector's value in terms of GDP was greater than that of the "chemical industry" and almost equal to the car industry.

Neumann said that political leaders should redirect the economic and financial crisis to ensure it did not spill over into the cultural sphere.

González-Sinde was speaking during the closing session, entitled Culture ministers' reflections on the framework for development of European cultural industries along with Han Fadila Laanan, Minister of Culture of the French-speaking community of Belgium, Bernd Neumann, Minister of Culture of Germany, Marcus Rantalla, Minister-Designate of Culture of Finland, Gabriela Canavilhas, Minister of Culture of Portugal and Androulla Vassiliou i, European Commissioner for Culture and Education.