1. General Information (Estimate: 250 Words) Page 1
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1. General Information (Estimate: 250 words) Page 1 Note : Before completing this form, please refer to the Quadrennial Periodic Reports Guidelines. a) Name of Party b) Date of ratification Serbia 02/07/2009 ? c) Ratification process d) Total contribution to the The initiative for ratification of the Convention on the Protection and International Fund for Cultural Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, UNESCO 2005, ? Diversity (in USD) (hereinafter referred to as: the Convention) was for the first time initiated in $1,863.36 ? cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2006, and thereby passed the official national legal procedure. However, this process of confirmation in the Parliament was slowed down by the dissolution of the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro in the same year. The new Government was elected in 2007, and all the laws, treaties and international acts were returned for a new procedure. The same situation repeated with the election of the new Government in 2008. The Convention was ratified at the session of the National Assembly on 29th May 2009, and the Law came into effect on the eight day from the day of its publication in the “Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia 42/09 – International Agreements”, i.e. on 06th June 2009. e) Organization(s) or entity(es) responsible for the preparation of the report M.Sc. Ivana Zečević, the Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Serbia; M.Sc. Hristina Mikić, Creative Economy Group; M.Sc. Ana Stojanović, Center for Study in Cultural Development, Belgrade. f) Officially designated point of contact ? Title First name Family name Organization Position Mr. Miroslav Jankovic Ministry of Culture and Chief of Cabinet Media Mailing address Vlajkoviceva 3, 11 000 Belgrade Republic of Serbia Telephone +381 11 3398 172 E-mail [email protected] Fax +381 11 3032 112 g) Description of the consultation process established for the preparation of the report ? Focal points of the Convention – the Ministry of Culture and Media and the Center for Study in Cultural Development - were in charge of the coordination of report writing process and data collection . The following institutions were consulted during the process of preparation: the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and national cultural institutions – the National Library of Serbia and the Film Center Serbia, the Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia, the Republic Broadcasting Agency, the Serbian Business Registers Agency, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Serbia, the Ministry of Foreign and Domestic Trade and Telecommunications of the Republic of Serbia, the Republic Agency for Electronic Communications, the Information System for Coordination of the Development Assistance to the Republic of Serbia (ISDACON), the Serbia Investment and www.unesco.org/culture/en/2005convention/Periodic-reports 1. General Information (Estimate: 250 words) Page 2 Export Promotion Agency (SIEPA). Ms Hristina Mikić, M.Sc, from the Creative Economy Group, provided the active professional and valuable support primarily by the expertise and by cedes results of her own and the Creative Economy Group research studies. Participation was provided through online consultations with the relevant representatives of cultural industries, as well as by inclusion of the "Independent Cultural Scene of Serbia", umbrella organization of civil society in culture, which has 78 members in the civil society sector, where it described the contribution of civil society to the implementation of the Convention and presents, from its own perspective, the main challenges in its further implementation. Unfortunately, the number of participants of cultural sector that realized the significance of participation in preparation report has been small, so the response to electronic communication was quite low (about 30%). h) Name of representative(s) of participating civil society organization(s) Title First name Family name Organization Position Independent Cultural Mrs. Suncica Milosavljevic Coordinator Scene www.unesco.org/culture/en/2005convention/Periodic-reports Executive Summary of the Report Page 3 ln writing this summary, please include the main achievements and challenges in implementing the Convention and, where appropriate, an outlook for the future. ? (Maximum 500 words) Ratification of the Convention 2005 in Serbian Parliament significantly contributed to the development of cultural system. In scope of 2009-2012, several new regulations and laws which were adopted address cultural diversity and intercultural dialogue, while it presents one of the basic principles of cultural development in the Law on Culture. The production, dissemination and diversity of cultural expressions were provided by the Ministry of Culture and Media through annual Open Competitions for co-financing cultural and media projects/programs. Various cultural and media projects/programs were also funded due to the signed documents on cooperation between cultural institutions/organizations and public authorities at different governmental levels. The Working group for the development of creative industries within the Ministry of Culture and Media was established. Reconstruction projects with a longer-term impact enjoyed priority over short-term projects. Cultural institutions of national importance, such as National Museum, National Library of Serbia, Yugoslav Cinemateque, were reconstructed in this period and network of cinemas was digitalized. Support to artists in the process of creating cultural expressions was given through the improvement of their social and economic status. This implies the decrease of income taxes for artists and cultural creators. Also, tax deductions for investments into culture were increased. In the four year period, five professional associations from the field of visual arts gain status of the representative cultural associations at national level. The outcome of the state support to networking and cooperation (CSOs, SMEs, etc) is appearing of several collaborative platforms and clusters in cultural industries. Apart from the signed Programs and Protocols on cultural cooperation with many countries at the bilateral level, activities at the regional and multilateral level also resulted in signing Declarations with countries of the Southeast Europe emphasizing cultural diversity. A new practice in international cooperation, within the strengthening of traditional cooperation, is introducing culture and arts into documents concerning economic and scientific-technical cooperation. Likewise, presentation of Serbian culture abroad was high on the agenda on international relation. One of the important dates is the accession of Serbia to the North-South Centre of the Council of Europe in 2009. Center for Study in Cultural Development conducted several national surveys addressing cultural policy with focus on cultural resources of the cities and municipalities. The final results will be orientation for future cultural planning, in same time, ensuring an insight to overall cultural system of Serbia. Following this direction, unique local cultural potentials would become a vector for economic development of the Serbian regions, which is declared in the Law of Culture in force. The visibility of the Convention was provided by organizing various public events dedicated to cultural industries field. In 2011 the Ministry of Culture signed the Protocol on cooperation with the umbrella organization “Independent Culture Scene of Serbia”, which officially confirmed the significance and active role of the civil society in creating cultural policy. It is clear that adoption of the Convention strongly contributed to cultural system reform process and on this way Serbia receives a stimulus for a long term development and democratic management reforms. The main achievements in implementation of the Convention would be: new legislation becoming in force, financial support to cultural diversity and straitening partnerships with the CSOs. Convention further implementation, especially at local level, is considered as the main challenge. www.unesco.org/culture/en/2005convention/Periodic-reports 2. Measures (Estimate: 6000 words) Page 4 Parties shall provide information on policies and measures adopted to protect and promote the diversity of cultural expressions within their territory (at the national, regional or local levels) and at the international level (including trans-regional or trans-national levels). Information to be presented in this Section of the report is to be organized according to the following themes: i) cultural policies and measures; ii) international cooperation and preferential treatment; iii) the integration of culture in sustainable development policies; iv) protecting cultural expressions under threat. Key questions: Parties shall respond, to the extent possible, to the following questions for each theme: (a) What are the main objective(s) of the policy or measure? When was it introduced? (b) How has it been implemented, which public agency(ies) is (are) responsible for its implementation and what resources have been allocated to ensure implementation? (c) What challenges have been identified in the implementation of this measure? (d) What has been the effect or impact of the policy or measure? What indicators were used to lead to this conclusion? www.unesco.org/culture/en/2005convention/Periodic-reports 2.1. Cultural policies and measures Page 5 2.1. Cultural policies and measures ? The purpose of this section is to