Cultural policies of the European Union

European Union culture policies aim to address and promote the cultural dimension of European integration through relevant legislation and government funding. These policies support the development of cultural activity, education or research conducted by private companies, NGO's and individual initiatives based in the European Union working in the fields of cinema and audiovisual, publishing, music and crafts.
The European Commission runs Culture Programme , and the EU funds other cultural bodies such as the European Cultural Month, the Media Programme, the European Union Youth Orchestra and the European Capital of Culture programme.
The EU awards grants to cultural projects and has launched a web portal dedicated to Europe and Culture, responding to the European Council's expressed desire to see the Commission and the member states "promote the networking of cultural information to enable all citizens to access European cultural content by advanced technological means."

WWW europa.eu/pol/cult/index_...

History and development

The Council of Europe, which is distinct from the European Union, first formalised cultural cooperation policy in Europe with its European Cultural Convention.
However, European Union-affiliated cultural policy, promoting unified cooperation between member states was first initiated with the 1992 Maastricht Treaty.
Currently, a cultural contact point is established in each EU member state, responsible for facilitating communication between the European Commission's Cultural Programme and each member state.

Institutions and bodies

The most important EU institutions through which decisions are made regarding cultural policies are:

the European Commission acting in the areas of culture, sport and languages,
the Committee on Culture and Education of the European Parliament,
the Education, Youth and Culture sector of the Council of the European Union,
and the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency of the European Commission.

List of institutions and bodies

The EU promotes cultural development through numerous institutions, civil society organisations and networks such as:

Cinema of Europe
Committee on Culture and Education
Directorate-General for Education and Culture
Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency
Euranet
Europa Nostra - foundation
European Audiovisual Observatory
European Commission
European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth
European Film Promotion
European Institute of Cultural Routes - network
European League of Institutes of the Arts - network
European Network of Information Centres - network
European Union National Institutes for Culture
European Union Youth Orchestra - network
Union of the Theatres of Europe - network
European Network of Cultural Centres - network
Trans Europe Halles - network
European Festival Association - network
European Composer & Songwriter Alliance - ECSA - network
European Choral Association - Europa Cantat EV - network
Informal European Theatre Meeting - network
Federation for European Storytelling - network
Europe Jazz Network - network
Club de Directores de Arte de Europa ADCE - network
Convention Theatrale Europeenne - network
European Dancehouse Network - network
European network on cultural management and policy - network
Eurozine - Network of European Cultural Journals
Amateo the European Network for Active Participation in Cultural Activities Arts Take Part - Active Participation for Creative Europe
Live - network
European Route of Industrial Heritage) - network
European Music Council) - network
Reseau Europeen de Musique Ancienne) - network
Conseil des Architectes d'Europe) - network
Association Europenne des Conservatoires, Academies de Musique et Musikhochschulen AEC) - network
Circostrada) - network
Secretariat de Jeunesses Musicales International JMI) - network

List of programmes

The EU promotes cultural development through numerous programmes such as:

European Cultural Month ran from 1990-2008 to promote culture, mainly for the Central and Eastern European countries.

List of awards

The EU promotes cultural development through the policy of awards:

List of non-EU cultural institutions, bodies and programmes

The following is a list of European institutions, bodies and programmes which may be thought to be related to the EU/EU policy, but are not:

Arte
Council of Europe
Compendium of cultural policies and trends in Europe
Eurocities
EUROFRAME
Europalia
European Broadcasting Union
European Cultural Foundation
European Dancehouse Network
European Film Academy
European Museum Forum
University Network of the European Capitals of Culture

Policies by sector

Arts and culture

The European Commission runs the EU's Culture Programme, which typically runs in 7 year intervals. The last Culture Programme was called Culture 2000. For the next Culture Programme was spent €400 million. Current program is called Creative Europe .

Sports

Sport is largely the domain of the member states, with the EU mostly playing an indirect role. Recently the EU launched an anti-doping convention. The role of the EU might increase in the future, if the Treaty of Lisbon were to be ratified by all member states. Other policies of the EU have affected sports, such as the freedom of employment which was at the core of the Bosman ruling, which prohibited national football leagues from imposing quotas on foreign players with EU nationality.

Languages

The languages of the European Union are languages used by people within the member states of the European Union. They include the 24 official languages of the European Union plus many others. EU policy is to encourage all its citizens to be multilingual; specifically, it encourages them to be able to speak two languages in addition to their mother tongue. The reason for this is not only to promote easier communication between Europeans, but also to encourage greater tolerance and respect for diversity. A number of EU funding programmes actively promote language learning and linguistic diversity. The content of educational systems remains the responsibility of individual member states. Further information can be found at language policy.