Introduction: Is every country too small for big ideas?1 Publication “(Re)positioning the region of Southeast Europe through culture” stems from the research conducted by the Creative Europe Desk Serbia within its Forum in 2017, the topic of which was exactly regional cooperation. Cre- ative Europe Forum 2018 shifts its focus on celebrating European cultural heritage, at the same time being related to the Republic of Bulgaria presiding over the Council of the European Union and dealing with EU integration of the Western Balkans. Due to this, an important segment of the CE Forum 2018 deals with regional cooperation in the feld of culture, and also cooperation of the region with the European Union. Bearing in mind the initiative of presiding over the EU Council has a clear political dimension, the debates during CE Forum 2018 will support future refections on the implementation of cultural strategy of the European Union. Our ambition is for the results presented in the publication “(Re)positioning the region of Southeast Europe through culture” to become a relevant segment in the implementation process of cultural strategy. The research was conducted in order to defne recommendations for the de- velopment of the region of Southeast Europe through culture. The aim was to analyse the presence of regional artists in relevant international manifesta- tions, the most important projects and initiatives from the domain of regional cooperation, strategic documents and legal frameworks of regional coopera- tion, and content of promotional touristic campaigns. The latter is especially important in the context of choosing content and the manner in which we present the region in the European and the international frameworks. The re- search indicates the state of regional cooperation and referential, successful, but also problematic points in existing practices. A set of problematic questions is related to the reputation the region of South- east Europe has associated with instability, disorganized systems, wars and corruption. Thus, 75% of respondents of the online questionnaire believes Europe has a prominently negative image of the region. In addition, Europe- an perception of the region can be seen through processes of “exoticisation”. Probably the most picturesque marker of “otherness” is count Dracula who is “perceived” through the region as a symbol of a dark and dangerous space. However, only 24 cultural professionals out of 184 believe exoticisation and orientalisation are essential traits of the region’s perception. When it comes to presenting the region by actors from Southeast Europe themselves, i.e. the content actors are choosing to present, content related to cultural heritage is still predominant, while potentials and accomplishments of contemporary culture are marginalised. This distinction is also directly re- lated to the insufciently developed “art tourism” relying precisely on con- temporary creativity and also connected with tourism based on promoting lifestyles, popular culture or customs. 1 Excerpt taken from a response of a cultural professional from Serbia who replied to the question on the importance of regional cooperation with “Be- cause all countries are too small for big ideas”. 237 On the other hand, when it comes to the positive image of the region, the larg- est number of respondents believes region is known for competencies and creativity of cultural professionals followed by cultural diversity (multi-eth- nicity and multi-confessionality) and contemporary art. A smaller number of respondents believe the region is recognisable for its food, impetus of life, tourism and nature. The second set of problematic questions is related to fnancial instability and uncertainty of (continuous) regional project funding. Certainly, the pull-back of international funds, such as the Swiss Programme for Culture, negatively infuenced not only fnancing on the national but also on the regional level. In this respect, great expectations of cultural professionals regards the newly formed regional fund in Tirana are justifed. However, what is lacking the most is continuous funding of regional projects on the national level as unam- biguous, strategic choice of regional countries. Together with conficting inter- pretation of history and unequal treatment of conficts, according to by far the largest number of respondents, lack of interest on the part of decision makers is the reason for the weak regional connectedness; fnancial problems are far less important or they are vividly illustrating the primary problem; also, in relation to this is the lack of mechanisms for co-funding of projects (i.e. instru- ments of fnancial support) participating in the Creative Europe programme in some regional countries. The Council of Ministers of Culture of Southeast Europe potentials remain in- sufciently utilised, which is especially visible if we compare the work of this initiative with the functioning of the Visegrad group or with the Nordic Coun- cil the Council of Ministers of Culture of Southeast Europe was modelled after. The Nordic Council is using a shared budget for quite some time to improve the cultural system of Nordic countries and it remains an important instru- ment in positioning artists and other cultural professionals on the interna- tional level. Its contribution is visible in developing the Nordic unity and the recognisability of the Nordic region. An encouraging fact is that 97% of respondents believe stronger regional connectedness would signifcantly contribute to the developing of individual countries and better positioning of the region in Europe and the world, out of which as many as 81% believe this is even a condition for better positioning of the region. Moreover, 73% of respondents believe partnerships and co-pro- ductions based on shared topics, dialogue and mutual understanding, but also improving knowledge and skills through mobility, networking and capacity strengthening are the most meaningful development strategies of the region. The importance of the Creative Europe programme is unambiguous in this context, both for the development of the cultural system in individual coun- tries and for the region as a whole. The essential concepts of the Creative Europe programme are precisely strengthening capacities, mobility, part- nerships and co-operations, coproduction assuming the “philosophy” of Eu- ropean cooperation – joint, non-hierarchical work on content with Europe- an character and importance. Therefore, the programme also envisages the participation and cooperation of organisations wanting to leave their comfort zone of the everyday, the familiar, and the usual activities of organisations 238 and institutions, which precisely means improving knowledge and acquiring new skills. Creative Europe offers a constructive framework for dealing with shared topics of territories, the region and Europe through dialogue and mu- tual understanding, which is very important for our region. Due to this, Cre- ative Europe represents a much more important cooperation platform than the mere possibility of securing fnancial support, which is, of course, also very important for high quality realisation of projects and artistic ideas of authors varied in profle. Connecting and cooperation are keywords not only in understanding the principle of European unity, but also the contemporary moment. Hence, it is necessary to further strengthen capacities of actors so they could fnd their position in new development processes and tendencies. The Creative Europe programme was precisely designed to enable such opportunities for all organ- isations in the feld of culture. Dimitrije Tadić Head of the Creative Europe Desk Serbia 239 240 CREATIVE EUROPE FORUM 2017, Creative Europe Desk Serbia (Re)positioning of the South Eastern European region through culture 18th-21st April 2017 Belgrade Youth Centre, European Centre for Culture and Debate Grad, Ilija M. Kolarac Foundation, Gallery Zvono, Aeroklub, French Cultural Centre in Belgrade, EU Info Centre in Belgrade. 1. Topic of the Creative Europe Forum: macro and micro regional European cooperation Forum Creative Europe 2017 is an international conference of the Creative Europe Desk Serbia dedicated to promoting the Creative Europe programme and the topic of regional cooperation as a strategy of European cultural development. The topic of the Forum will be covered on two levels: cooperation of the region and the territories in Europe on the macro and the micro level; cooperation and repositioning of countries of South Eastern Europe. The programme participants include experts and representatives of Creative Europe Desks from Serbia, Greece, Montenegro, Romania, Albania, Croatia, Cyprus, Macedonia, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Moldova, Hungary, and also France and Lithuania. 2. Joint debates on (re)positioning of South Eastern Europe Apart from the topic of European regional cooperation, participants of the Forum should recognise the strengths and peculiarities of the cultural and creative sector of the region, answer how can the region develop its cultural recognisability, whether it can use the good and bad experiences of other European regions such as the Scandinavian, Baltic or Central European one, what are the best opportunities for the development of South Eastern Europe and what is the place of the Creative Europe programme in this process. 3. Presentation of the research (Re)positioning of the South Eastern European region through culture With the aim of joint defning