EU-voorzitter Spanje wil stevige cultuursector (en)

The ministers of culture of the EU are holding an informal meeting in Barcelona on Wednesday to exchange points of view about how to promote cultural industries and to ensure that culture figures among the priorities on the European agenda.

The meeting will be chaired by Spain's Minister of Culture, Ángeles González-Sinde, who will make proposals to her EU colleagues about the policies that the various EU governments and the European Commission could adopt in the culture sector.

This will involve finding measures or policies to promote cultural industries at a time of economic transformation when culture has an increasingly important role to play, since it is a means of generating jobs and contributing to a more sustainable growth model.

One of the key culture objectives of the Spanish Presidency of the EU is to strengthen the role of cultural and creative industries as a source of employment and as a means of developing Europe's cultural identity, with particular focus on digital content, the movement of culture online, films and access to European cultural heritage.

The ministers' meeting was preceded by the Second European Forum on Cultural Industries (29 and 30 March), organised by the Ministry of Culture and the Chamber of Commerce of Barcelona, which highlighted the fact that the culture industry generates five million jobs and accounts for 2.6% of GDP across all EU countries.

A draft version of the European Commission's “Green Paper on cultural and creative industries” was presented at this event, containing a wide range of data about cultural habits and the development of different kinds of cultural industries in all their forms.

The minister said this data will be very useful for steering the debate about the best route to take to ensure that the people of Europe have easier access to culture and are able to find work in the various associated industries.