Mrs Trüpel and Mrs Kammerevert, German eurodeputies who are following up on culture and  trade negotiations have put forward two written questions to European Trade Commisioner Karel de Gucht. The questions dealt with the treatment of the cultural sector in the EU-Canada agreement being negotiated and more generally with the way the Commission manages to balance its cultural commitments (2005 Unesco Convention) with its trade policy.

The Commissioner’s  common answer to both deputies does not bring any new information on the Europeans’ agreement  with regards to the horizontal exclusion of cultural and audiovisual services usually defended by the Canadians  in the bilateral negotiations. M. de Gucht only indicates that, to the present moment, the Commission is not in a position to say whether the Canadians and the Europeans have different points of view on the cultural services and what are their classifications.

As far as the respect of the UNESCO Convention is concerned, the European Trade Commissioner states again that the Commission takes the UNESCO Convention into consideration and indicates the  Commission’s intention to guarantee in the best possible way the independence of the cultural cooperation from trade negotiations. One must however point out that the strategy on Cultural Cooperation Protocols which the Commission had committed to set up already a year ago in response to the mobilization of the European cultural and audiovisual sectors on the EU-Korean trade agreement, still has not been made public despite M. de Gucht’s statements on the subject. His statements on a consultation soon to come with the European Parliament and civil society has been mentioned again in his reply.

Read Mme Kammerevert and Mme Trüpel ‘s questions together with the answer of M. de Gucht.

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

Over the last few months, the French coalition for cultural diversity, together with other professionals of the audiovisual industry, has been strongly mobilized against the automatic attachment of a Cultural Cooperation Protocol to the trade agreements presently negotiated by the EU.

The French coalition has been invited to participate to a working group set up by the French Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs and directed by P. Sellal, ex Ambassador of France to the EU, on the treatment of audiovisual products in trade agreements.

This working group, composed of professionals and representatives of various French administration services, wrote a document mapping out a global strategy for the treatment of the cultural sector in economic and/or trade agreements between the EU and third countries. This document entitled “Communication by France : For a new European Union cultural external strategy” will be sent to the relevant services at the European Commission, the European Parliament and the present and future EU presidencies as well as our European partners.

Read text.