In their letter dated October 15^th 2012, the European coalitions were urging Commissionner Piebalgs, in charge of development, to ensure that the development programs take culture into consideration and respect the terms of the 2005 UNESCO Convention.

In his answer, M. Piebalgs confirmed the European Commission’s strong commitment for culture and cultural diversity. He highlighted the fact that UNESCO and the European Union recently committed to work together in favour of culture and education, which they consider as key factors for development.

Read the European coalitions letter and M. Piebalgs’s answer

Read the Memorandum of Understanding signed by the EU and UNESCO

In reply to a question from Euro-deputy Kader Arif, relaying the concerns of the cultural sector regarding the integration of cultural and audiovisual services in the EU / Canada trade agreement, Commissioner Karel de Gucht, in charge of Trade, disclaims there is any risk for the diversity of cultural expressions.

According to him “ these concerns are based on inaccurate, and therefore misleading, assumptions”.

He stresses the European Commission’s commitment for “the implementation of its principles [of the UNESCO’s  2005 Convention]  and provisions ,with the objective of fostering the diversity of cultural expression both within the EU and abroad”.

He makes it clear that “in the context of the on-going negotiation of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA)

- the Commission’s sole question to Canada relating to cultural industries thus far has been to clarify the scope of their broad cultural reservation,  so that the Commission has a clear understanding as to which services would be covered.”

- “subsidies are explicitly excluded from the scope of the Commission’s commitments relating to services and investment”.

- “the EU has not requested Canada to make a commitment on publishing services.” services”.

As to the question of cultural cooperation protocols annexed to trade agreements, the Commissioner pointed out that “this document will be presented and discussed with the European Parliament in the very near future” and that “it will be discussed with civil society”.

Read the question and answer on the site of the European Parliament

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+WQ+P-2011-002143+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN&language=EN

the letter sent to M. Barroso

the answer received from M. Barroso’s cabinet

On the occasion of the Fourth ordinary session of the Intergovernmental Committee, the UNESCO launched a publication called “Mapping Cultural Diversity – Good Practices from Around the Globe”. 

This is the result of the collaborative work of the Asia-Europe Foundation and the German Commission for UNESCO with contributions from the U40 Network for “Cultural Diversity 2030″.

This publication highlights a variety of  public or private initiatives, policies, programs and creations to protect or promote cultural diversity in many countries around the world.

 Download the publication here