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Although all three are formal interlocutors of the European Commission in the context of the structured dialogue with civil society, the three Platforms have different development dynamics, and that showed once again during their June plenary meetings.
On Monday 8 June the Platform for Intercultural Europe opened the festivities. A public meeting focused on ‘the distinctive contribution of the arts to intercultural dialogue’ was followed by its first General Assembly.
The Platform, in existence since end 2006, already published its policy recommendations in 2008 (the Rainbow Paper) and is now in its implementation phase. The ambition is both to work with and for the sector itself, as well as to input into policy-making. To do so the Platform has set two priority focuses for the year: capacity-building in organisations, and the role of the arts in intercultural dialogue. The transversal nature of the Platform – bringing together civil society actors from different policy sectors: the arts, education, anti-discrimination, minority groups, etc. – is still at the heart of the Platform’s endeavour and was an important element of the June meeting. During the first half of the day, speakers from different backgrounds – artistic practice, social work, academic research and journalism – gave their perspectives on the distinctive contribution of the arts to intercultural dialogue. Those interventions opened interesting conversations on arts engagement in society and potential new paths of trans-sectorial co-operation. Participants were also invited to brainstorm in smaller groups on the potential of artistic practice in intercultural action and the specific needs of the actors to develop such practice. Following those debates, the newly established association held its first General Assembly during which the Platform discussed its work plan, budget, membership (30 members organisations to date), and formally elected its steering committee.
The Access to Culture Platform held its plenary the next day on Tuesday 9 June. The aim of the meeting was to discuss and adopt the Platform policy paper but also to brainstorm on future perspectives.
As underlined by the Platform chair, Mercedes Giovinazzo (Director of Interarts and Culture Action Europe’s president), the topic assigned to this Platform is especially complex considering its very broad nature and its relatively low profile in current EU policy frameworks. The result of the exercise is therefore to be seen in the longer term and as a first step towards opening the reflection to a broader audience (cultural sector and policy-makers). The policy papers prepared on the basis of the three working groups reports by two external experts (Yvonne Donders and Annamari Laaksonen) positions the issue of access to culture in a human rights/cultural rights framework. As the three WG papers were very different in nature, the resulting overall paper tried to find an internal logic which would both reinforce the importance of placing access to culture upstream in cultural policy-making (with a strong call to also mainstream culture in other policy fields) and formulate clear priority areas for action to develop the conditions of creation, education and participation across Europe. During the plenary, recommendations were reviewed again by the participants with the intention to streamline their content and sharpen their messages. On the basis of this discussion the steering group will finalise the Platform policy paper for end of June. The format of the paper will also be reviewed and a shorter executive summary prepared. Following the discussions on the recommendations the ‘Creation and creativity’ working group proposed ideas to develop the communication of the Platform and improve linkage to the broader sector. As a first step the Platform participants agreed on the importance to have the policy paper distributed and debated among their members and the sector in general. The Platform recommendations should indeed not be considered as an end point but as a tool to be developed and used by different organisations and networks for their own lobbying actions at local, regional, national and European levels. Many ideas were discussed by the Platforms (website presence, presentation at events, translations) and should be carried further in the months to come. As a first step, the outcome of the Platform work will be posted on the website of the European Cultural Forum (to be launched end of June).
The Cultural Industries Platform held its plenary on the morning of 10 June. Its agenda was very similar to the ‘Access to Culture’ Platform: adoption of the policy paper and next steps.
Discussions on the policy recommendations were relatively consensual as the Platform steering group had managed to negotiate a ‘common ground’ position, which seemed to please a majority of the participating organisations. All agreed however that this paper aimed at very concrete goals (influencing the EU upcoming ‘Green book on cultural industries’ in 2010, supporting DG EAC in establishing a dialogue with other key EC DGs) but that each sector would have to follow up with their own advocacy messages and actions if more specific interests had to be represented and defended. The Platform steering group also asked the participating organisations to present the Platform demands to the national, regional and local levels as many of its recommendations do not fall in the EU competence. Discussions on further communication actions to publicise the document also took place. This question will be addressed by the steering group in the weeks to come.
Following this last plenary, a joint session of the three platforms organised at the initiative of Culture Action Europe, took place in the presence of around 35 participants and of Xavier Troussard, Head of the Cultural policy and Intercultural Dialogue Unit of DG EAC.
Moderated by Ilona Kish, this session aimed at increasing the synergies between the Platforms, and deepen the reflection on the ways to improve their political perspectives and formal recognition by the EU institutions. The relationship between the Platforms and the Commission as well as with the Council were discussed in particular. The synergies between the three Platforms, overlaps and complementarities were clearly recognised, and the possibility of joining forces around transversal issues explored. The importance of establishing a fruitful working relationship between the Platforms and DG EAC was also recognized by Xavier Troussard. He committed to feedback to the Platforms on their policy papers and to integrate the issues addressed by those papers in the debates of the September Cultural Forum. He also encouraged the Platforms to contact the Swedish presidency of the Council to deepen the dialogue with the OMC working groups. However he strongly advised the Platforms to focus their effort on approaching the national governments directly, as Member States were still the main decision makers for many of the issues addressed by the Platforms. An effort in translating the demands to fit other policy fields will also have to be done in order to enter in a productive dialogue with other DGs of the Commission. The discussion ended with an agreement of partnering, at both DG EAC and Platforms level, to develop the bottom up capacity of the structured dialogue process and to translate the Platforms general policy recommendations into concrete operational demands to be addressed to the different levels of power in European cultural policymaking.
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