| European Union |
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Policies and issues
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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 EU working in the fields of cinema and audiovisual, publishing, music and crafts.
The EU Commission runs Culture Programme (2007-2013), 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 (233 in 2004) 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."[1]
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The Council of Europe, which is distinct from the European Union (EU), first formalised cultural cooperation policy in Europe with its European Cultural Convention.[2]
However, specific EU policy on cultural cooperation began between member states since its inclusion in the 1992 Maastricht Treaty.[3]
A cultural contact point (CCP) is set up in each EU member state, and is responsible for aiding communication between the European Commission's Cultural Programme and member state.[4]
The most important EU institutions through which decisions area made regarding cultural policies are:
The EU promotes cultural development through numerous institutions such as:
The EU promotes cultural development through numerous programmes such as:
The EU promotes cultural development through the policy of awards:
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:
The European Commission runs the EU's Culture Programme, which typically runs in 7 year intervals. The last Culture Programme was called Culture 2000. The current Culture Programme (2007-2013) will spend €400 million.[6]
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 (for example) the Treaty of Lisbon were to be ratified by all member states.[7] Other policies of the EU have had an impact on 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.[8]
The languages of the European Union are languages used by people within the member states of the European Union. They include the 23 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.
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