Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-03-10-Speech-1-089"
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"en.20030310.4.1-089"2
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".
Madam President, my colleague, Mr Lamy, has explained very clearly that, as far as culture is concerned, the Pandora’s box is closed and no one has any intention of opening it. There are a number of reasons for this. Firstly, we want to maintain our ability to protect cultural creativity on a regional, national and international level. To this end, we need to have the freedom to support all kinds of cultural products, if that is what we want to call them. Secondly, cultural products are not the same as commercial products. Culture has another dimension. It is linked to our roots and our diversity. As Mrs De Sarnez rightly said, and as I have clearly stated, neither GATS nor the WTO is an appropriate forum in which to debate culture. I therefore agree with all those in this House who have stated that we need an international body like Unesco.
Madam President, we need to be aware that, at present, there is no international legal reference standard for culture. I agree with all the Members who stated that one is called for. We need one to pre-empt this never-ending series of debates on culture. Even if Mr Lamy and I do not open the Pandora’s box on this issue, there is a deep-rooted fear in the Member States and amongst the people of Europe that this could nonetheless happen one day. We therefore need an international legal reference standard in the interests of cultural diversity and cultural exchange. It is an idea we should work on. It follows logically from the Unesco declaration and we are studying it with interest.
My own feeling is that the viability of an international instrument would depend, in particular, on its capacity to develop reference standards on cultural diversity at an international level. Initially, it should foster reflection on indicators of cultural diversity
That said, preserving our ability to support cultural diversity entails, in the first place, action within the European Union. Nevertheless, many Members of this House who have indicated that we need to go further are right. We do have an international responsibility which goes beyond the Europe of Fifteen or Twenty-five. The Treaty now provides for this. Article 151(4) allows international action where culture is concerned and we regularly engage in this. I can assure you that a film director from a third country could not show his or her film in Europe without an invitation to a European cinema festival. We are most certainly opening up to others. I would like to tell Mr van Velzen that our Erasmus World project is only possible because the Treaty allows us to go beyond the borders of the European Union.
Ladies and gentlemen, this must certainly be preserved in the European Convention and in the next Treaty. In the forthcoming Treaty, we must be allowed to retain our ability to protect cultural diversity of all kinds within the Union. We must also be able to retain our ability to act beyond the borders of the Union at international level. This could involve the creation of a Unesco type of international agreement to protect culture, or projects like Erasmus World
It could also involve helping creative people from third countries express themselves in the forums made available to them.
You will appreciate that culture necessarily entails opening up. Clearly, this opening up is not merely for the benefit of Europeans; it also involves welcoming creative artists and others from third countries."@en1
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