The KEA Blog

KEA's contribution to the consultation on the future “EU 2020” Strategy

Europe’s future prosperity and competitiveness will undoubtedly depend on its capacity to foster innovation and creativity.

 

The Lisbon Strategy has put innovation at the heart of EU policies. However, the focus has been firmly concentrated on technological innovation and support to research and development initiatives.

The Impact of Culture on Creativity

These days creativity seems to be everywhere. The term has turned into a catch phrase, used in the media, in policy statements and in academic literature. Creativity consequently means different things to different people. You can be a creative accountant or a creative football player. Likewise, management literature has turned creativity into an essential means to stimulate productivity in the work place. As a result, the notion of creativity has become ubiquitous and has lately been used to describe vaguely defined capacities that are attributed to creative people. A more tangible notion of the concept of creativity and an assessment of its relationship with the European cultural sphere is therefore required.

Creativity: driving local economic development

1.Economic and social contribution of the creative sector

In today’s knowledge-based society the rationale for publicly supporting the cultural and creative sector goes beyond the traditional “arts for arts sake” approach. Fostering sector development is based on multiple social, cultural and economic objectives. Culture and creativity are considered vital factors in attracting talented individuals and investment. They also foster economic development, local regeneration and strengthen cultural diversity and social integration.

Collective Management of Rights - A European Model?

Rights management is at the heart of Europe's creative industries.

Collective management is also an area where Europe has a leading market position in the world. In the EU there are approximately 65 music licensing societies which collected 5 billion euro in 2004 on behalf of authors, composers, performers and record companies.

70 Cents For Culture!

On the 15th March this year, the campaign « 70 cents for culture » was launched by the European Cultural Foundation (ECF) and the European Forum for the Arts and Heritage (EFAH). The campaign aims to secure an increase in the EU Culture Budget for the years 2007-13, from the current level of €34 million a year to a more realistic budget of €315 million. Although this would be a massive increase on the current budget, that is because the current level of EU funding for culture is tiny. It costs just 7 cents per EU citizen per year, 0.03% of the total EU budget. The revised budget would comprise 0.27 percent of the EU’s funds at a cost of just 70 cents per citizen per year.

The increase in budget is seen as especially important at a time when Europe is expanding. According to the EU president José Manuel Barroso “The questions of what Europe can do for culture and what culture can do for Europe have acquired a new sense of urgency.” The new €315 million culture budget would, among other things, go towards encouraging cross-border cultural exchanges, boosting the EU’s cultural foreign policy, and enhancing the EU’s cultural competitiveness.

The campaign has attracted significant support from all four party groupings in the EU Parliament. You can register your support for the campaign by signing the manifesto here.

For further information on the campaign you can visit the ECF and EFAH websites.

Everybody for cultural diversity?

The U.S. market, which is the largest in the world, is also the most difficult for non-American audiovisual products and services to access. European, African, Asian and Latin American films account for only 5% of the market in the United States. As for music, U.S. artists lord over the market with a 92% share. In recent years, British artists have seen their market share melt away like snow in April: it is currently down to 6%, compared with 30% just under 15 years ago, in spite of the fact that three of the five record giants – namely Universal, Bertelsmann and EMI – are European. In contrast with the situation in the United States, the European market is an example of openness to cultural influences from abroad. Nevertheless, Europeans are being accused of protectionism.

To read more... http://www.kernnet.com/kea/news/news06_en.pdf