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The place of culture in tomorrow's Europe
With the aim of promoting a public discussion on the significance of the European Agenda for Culture, the EUROMEDINCULTURE Citizenship project has brought together 9 European partners, all of them members of the EUROMEDINCULTURE(s) network. The project, which has received support from the European
Commission in the framework of the Europe for Citizens programme, has involved the realisation of 9 regional forums, gathering different audiences from several countries in order to express themselves on the main challenges of the Agenda.
Simultaneously, a questionnaire was widely disseminated, then analysed by scientific experts in each participating country. This project has further opened itself to the Mediterranean area thanks to the Tunisian member of the EUROMEDINCULTURE(s) network who disseminated an Arabic version of the questionnaire and organized a local forum.
Finally, a large European forum took place in Montpellier, involving 1200 participants during 2 days and allowing exchanges on the basis of preliminary conclusions proposed by the project partners. Several other members of the EUROMEDINCULTURE(s) network had the opportunity to take part in this big public debate, thanks to the support of the Languedoc-Roussillon regional Council.
This document is the result of this process. It will be widely disseminated with the aim of becoming a supporting tool for European institutions, contributing to give content to current reflections concerning the place of culture within future European policies.
The methodology of the project consisted of a consultative process as well as debates about the three topics of the European Agenda for Culture. Several hundreds of questionnaires were analysed by experts. Reports were drawn up after each of the 9 regional forums. In June 2009, when the project’s steering committee convened in Munich, a first finding was put forward: all regional forums had addressed the topics proposed by the European Commission with a local and regional approach. Each country dealt with those subjects under a rather “national” lens.
However, when the summary was made, the partners succeeded in putting forward common proposals
on which the European Forum in Montpellier was based. Coherence at the various levels of challenges (citizens, European Union, network) was totally ensured.
Citizens’ opinions gathered on a local area, passed through the network and its partners to end up at the level of European institutions, i.e. a bottom-up approach. This process is not isolated. It is related to studies and reports already published by institutions, networks and working groups. Through our specific approach – broad questionnaire-based recommendations, supported by the results of a series of local and European consultative forums – we aim to enhance some elements already brought out by, among others, the ‘structured dialogue’ of the European Commission with the cultural sector, the UNESCO Convention on the Diversity of Cultural Expressions or the Agenda 21 for culture.
That document is made up of 4 parts, each one presented according to the same approach “EUROMEDINCULTURE(s) observes”, then “EUROMEDINCULTURE(s) recommends”. In addition
to the three topic areas identified in the Agenda, one initial section has been devoted to the themes
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