Organised on 18th may 2009 by the CNC on  the occasion of the 62nd International Film Festival in Cannes, this debate was lead by Christine Albanel, French minister of Culture and Communication ; Anne-Marie Idrac, Secretary of State – External Trade ; Ignasi Guardans Cambó, Director of the ICAA (Spain) ; Jim Mc Kee, General Secretary of the International Federation of Coalitions for Cultural Diversity (Canada) ; Hélène Ruiz-Fabri, Professor at the University Paris 1 and Pascal Rogard, President of the French Coalition for Cultural Diversity.

Read (.pdf files) :

• the minutes of the debates
• the intervention of Jim McKee (in French)
• the intervention of Hélène Ruiz-Fabri (in French)
• the closing statement of Christine Albanel (in French)

The European coalitions for cultural diversity are mobilised against the systematic attachment of a cultural cooperation protocol to the bilateral free trade negotiations conducted by the European Commission, and request the setting up of a general negotiating strategy to be specifically designed for culture.
Read the declaration issued at the occasion of their meeting in Paris on May 5th, 2009.

The European coalitions wrote a letter to the President of the European Commission, M. Barroso, urging him to intervene in order to dissociate the Protocol of Cultural Cooperation from the Free Trade agreement negotiations now being held with Korea.

Read the letter and the comments of the European coalitions on the Concept Paper of the European Commission.