Culture and Creative Industries in the EU's External Relations

Report More Europe debate Amsterdam, 19 September 2012 Beyond markets: culture and creative industries in the EU’s external relations by Tsveta Andreeva, European Cultural Foundation More Europe is a cultural civic initiative. The initiators are: LES ÉLÉMENTS CONSTITUTIFS 01.1. LE LOGOTYPE PRÉSENTATION Un logotype qui fait autorité pour poser une nouvelle marque et installer l’Institut français dans le monde. La modernité minimaliste du logotype est là pour affirmer que l’Institut français existe depuis toujours, à travers un réseau présent partout dans le monde. Le logotype ne s’écrit pas et ne s’imite pas. Il s’agit d’une image originale et non modifiable, qu’il convient d’utiliser en respectant la charte graphique qui l’accompagne. IMPORTANT Le logotype Institut français est destiné à remplacer les précédentes marques employées (Centre culturel français, Maison, etc.), et sera utilisé en marque unique et de manière identique dans le monde entier pour ce qui concerne la signa- létique. En revanche, tous les Instituts français ont la possibilité de faire figurer leur pays ou leur ville de rattachement au-dessous du logotype pour des opéra tions de communication (affiches, programmes, événements, publications). Les supports qui permettent également une décli- naison locale, au niveau des villes, des régions ou des pays, sont les éléments de papeterie. > 5 REPORT MORE EUROPE DEBATE AMSTERDAM, 19 SEPTEMBER 2012 SETTING THE SCENE The More Europe Amsterdam debate was based on the idea that culture and creative industries have an invaluable, but underestimated, potential to make a shift in international relations, in particular when it comes to the European Union’s external relations. While this point of view is obvious to cultural and creative practitioners, high-level EU foreign policymakers are yet to be fully convinced. And even if some of them are already aware of these issues, they still need to be provided with good arguments and positive examples to be able to translate this knowledge into appropriate policies. This debate engaged cultural entrepreneurs and managers, diplomats, creative minds, economists, politicians and journalists in a conversation about current practices and models capable of fostering international cultural relations and strengthening EU‘s position as a global player. In this function, the EU must go beyond a purely economic or developmental approach. To achieve this in the context of 21st-century globalisation and the shifting centres of power, we need to engage in new thinking, new approaches, new tools, new actors and new partnerships. Culture and creative industries are often brought together in these political discussions. However arts and culture operate differently than the market-based creative industries. Hence, when it comes to external relations policies, different diplomacy competencies and approaches have to be applied. The products of creative businesses can be exported under trade agreements and therefore form direct economic value. International cultural cooperation is usually subject to “soft” diplomacy. Both provide important added value that every state and the European Union can capitalise on, if they are embedded in smart diplomacy portfolios. The debate in Amsterdam addressed this dichotomy by bringing together resourceful cultural players and letting them express their (often) very divergent, yet also complementary, opinions and experiences. New arguments were found to further nurture debate and inform coherent policymaking. The Report on the cultural dimensions of the EU’s external relations by the MEP Marietje Schaake was adopted by the European Parliament in 2011. It delineated a possible strategy for embedding culture in the core of EEAS’ activities. These valuable ideas need to be pursued, in particular by getting the input of practitioners in the field to help bring this strategy to life. In 2012, the European Commission initiated a Preparatory Action called “Culture in external relations” that should contribute to formulating recommendations for a strategy on culture in European external relations1. The time is now. 1 See Call for proposals EAC/09/2012. 2 ON THE ECONOMIC AND INTRINSIC SOCIAL VALUES OF CULTURE AND CREATIVE INDUSTRIES Ideally, diplomacy “is about positioning a nation globally, and culture should be a part of its story,” said Dr. Alexander Rinnooy Kan. In reality, we may need to involve economists to help translate our message to the diplomats, and let them answer the question: “Do culture and creative industries represent economic value only?” For those already convinced of the value of culture as a public good and of the creative industries as an important pillar of the economy (in the Netherlands, anyway), the answer seems obvious. Culture and creative industries form the “culture stock and flow” that encompasses the past, present and future. It must therefore become “an eye opener, a mind opener and a door opener” for diplomacy. The case of the Netherlands, where human rights and trade coexist peacefully on top of the foreign relations agenda, is quite unique. Here, the economic value of arts and creative industries has been realised a long time ago and embedded in sound policies. How can the European Union, as a supranational framework, go beyond the cultural policies of individual states and develop a strong and much-needed cultural dimension. And how can the EU do this while still taking into account “the creative stock and flow – and making it extremely accessible for people despite their backgrounds”. THE POWER OF ART AND CREATIVITY “If you want to know where hell is, ask the artist. If you can’t find the artist, you know you’re in hell.” Opening with this quotation taken from a wall in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the MEP Marietje Schaake presented an invigorating set of new ideas while still pointing to the heart of the issue: It’s the power of the artist is what matters most! And this power of expression cannot be beaten by any oppressive authority. Reinforced by several well-known examples, such as the Chinese contemporary artist Ai Wei Wei whose artistic work poses a threat to the Chinese government, and the Syrian cartoonist Ali Farzad who was beaten up because his drawings offended Assad, a clear setting was established. Europe must play a crucial global role in peace-making, democracy-building and the establishing of respect for fundamental rights and freedoms. “Arts and culture can help people connect beyond government control.” (M. Schaake) The EU is developing a Common Foreign and Security Policy in which a strong cultural aspect needs to be introduced. Cultural relations are already taking place (e.g. in development, enlargement, trade, human rights policies, etc), but we also need high political leadership and concrete responsibilities to be taken on by the EEAS. We need to make these actions more effective and help make them more mainstream. Artists are already de facto cultural diplomats. However diplomats are not always aware of the effects and impact of culture. Inspiration and empowerment transcend borders and we are currently seeing this facilitated and widely spread across the globe by new technologies. Arts and culture can connect people where diplomacy tools are inefficient. The people-to-people contacts that exist in culture should be taken more seriously, namely in respect to their capacity for challenging the status quo and for fostering freedoms and rights. Return on investment in culture “cannot be monetised one-on-one and we should celebrate that, because culture brings different value added in terms of process,” said Schaake during her speech. 2 3 Marietje Schaake took the lead in visualising what in fact we want to achieve by adding an explicit cultural dimension to the EU’s external relations, by attaching concrete ideas and proposals to it: “I would like to see what More Europe can actually mean: -‐ More political leadership to facilitate smart policies for including culture in EU external actions -‐ European university on Tahrir square, not only American university -‐ More visas for artists and professionals to come work in Europe -‐ More content and heritage uploaded on Europeana – the Europe’s digital portal for culture and heritage -‐ More global audiences listening to the concerts at the North Sea Jazz festival and more people dancing to European techno -‐ EU inviting more journalists to see and experience the press freedom -‐ ‘One-stop shop’ with information on EU culture programmes in each EU diplomatic representation -‐ Etc… […] and I would like to see less: -‐ Bureaucracy for small cultural organisations when applying for an EU grant -‐ Fragmentation of copyright management in the EU -‐ Emphasis on the economic value of culture but more on its intrinsic value.” M. Schaake The most important appeal is for civil society and cultural and creative practitioners to get organised and start giving their input into policymaking. The politicians cannot do it alone. In this respect More Europe is very much needed. HOW CAN CULTURE AND CREATIVE INDUSTRIES FOSTER INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMACY? Several antagonistic fronts developed during the debate. Discussing what European culture is, and how it can be defined for the purposes of the future European external relations’ portfolio, turned out to be an unavoidable trap. “Is it more of Europe we actually wish for?” wondered Schaake. Meanwhile Charles Esche argued that we cannot avoid defining what culture is, if we want to promote culture beyond Europe and truly make it a key pillar of EU’s external relations. Such controversial statements as “Nobody cares about European culture outside Europe!”, as stated by Frédéric Martel, fired the discussion. He was immediately countered by Katelijn Verstraete who said that there was much curiosity about European culture in Asia. However this curiosity is changing under the strong influences of the emerging power centres in the region and may therefore be addressed in the future. At the end of the day we would like to have stronger impact than Japanese tourists going on a “European tour”.

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