News

The European Forum on Cultural Industries took place on 29 and 30 March at the Casa Llotja in Barcelona. The event, jointly organised by the Minister of Culture and the Chamber of Commerce of Barcelona, was an opportunity for ministers of culture to reflect together.

Plenary IV

 

Press Release about the closing ceremony of the Forum by the Minister of Culture of Spain, Ángeles González-Sinde (link below in Spanish).

www.mcu.es/gabineteprensa/busquedaGabinetePrensaAction.do

 

“I would like to clear out a general confusion. We have to ask ourselves again about the meaning of intellectual propertity. Does culture have to be protected? Technology, very often, goes ahead legislation and this makes difficult regulating the sector. Lately, It has been talked about protecting intellectual property. Not to set a difference between creators' rights and those of the citizens but to achieve balance between both. The meaning is to help those that have less skills to get financing or are less attractive to investors, those who cannot offer their products to the public."  

 

 

The third plenary meeting of the forum gave the floor to European representatives of several cultural sectors. Among other aspects, the role of book publishers and the impact of new technologies on the sector were discussed.

Plenary Session III (I)

 

“Our aim is to make accessible our cultural heritage and to allow our citizens to enjoy digitalization without the consequent loss of heritage generated. With the incorporation of new technologies, some paradoxes come up. For instance, internationalization of European products is harder and the spreading of these products in Europe is more difficult despite the higher consumption of culture in European countries." 

 

“In 2005, over five milion people were working in the creative sector, this means 3,1% of all the jobs in the EU 25. Its contribution to the European GDP was of  2,6%, way ahead the chemical, plastic or textile  industry".

 

Picture by David Campos

Plenary Session II

 

“Nowadays, we have the possibility to listen to music with our mobile and in many other ways but we who do musical broadcasting don't have the time to discover new talents. With less illegal downloading, we could get an artist up to the second or third album and therefore discover new talents".  

 

“Some want to change the way we act (the way publishers act) and they want us to lose one of the features of our job, closeness, and they only want to make business. This is a very sensitive issue. Publishers find it hard to understand it. The publishers' job doesn't change, no matter what platform we are using to create work: either on a digital platform such as the e-book or on a peper book. If things keep on going like this, things are going to turn like in the university and research sector, where free publishing has led to people to quit publishing."

 

Giep Hagoort, director of the study "The enterprising dimension of the cultural industries" and professor of Art & Economics at Utrecht University (The Netherlands):
‘The need to associate knowledge has to be solved urgently. In Europe, we are working in this sense and we are combining SMEs' creativity with the tools available in this time of post-crisis. The cultural sector is very useful in the sense that there are not high wages to managers nor any focusing that goes against social cohesion, plus we are not finding frauds in subsidies."  

 

The second plenary meeting of the forum dealt with government strategies and good practices to help cultural industries move forward. In this context, a study entitled "Culture in regional development" was presented.

Plenary Session II

 

Worries about the need to uphold intellectual property, rights management and territorial development of culture were among the topics dealt with at the parallel sessions held to complement the plenary sessions of the first day of the  European Forum on Cultural Industries.

Parallel sessions

 

"The public sector is investing in culture, but it should make a better analysis of what the sector really needs"
 

Parallel sessions

 

 

The European Forum on Cultural Industries was chosen as the venue for presenting the strategic lines of the European Commission's Green Paper on Cultural and Creative Industries, designed to help improve the situation of the cultural industries sector.

Plenary Session Introduction

 

"Most of the cultural companies are SMEs. The main problem they are facing is their undercapitalization. It is an access problem to financing. The European Parliament believes that it is necessary to promote a new regulatory framework. In fact, its last resolution was approved in this direction". 

 

"Culture should be seen as an investment, not as a luxury."

 

"With the Green Paper on cultural & creative industries, the European Commission is tempting to adopt the correct focusing to get to know how to organize the political programs at the local, regional and european level." 

"In such a hard situation, the EU has to guarantee the intellectual rights & funds, besides reinforcing the idea of a domestic market". 

 

 

"We need assets to boost creativity and to reward experimentation."

"We have to invest in R+D, to promote a spirit that guarantees corporate success, based on competitiveness. The problem is that, sometimes, new talents and creative ideas don't fit in the R+D sector".   

 

Pictures by David Campos

Images of the Opening Ceremony 1/3

 

The 2nd European Forum on Cultural Industries began with a commitment from the institutions to support cultural creation and to encourage internationalization.

 

Investment in nearby and local cultural creation

 

Words (in Spanish) by Ángeles González-Sinde, Spanish Minister of Culture, during the Opening Ceremony of the Forum

www.mcu.es/gabineteprensa/busquedaGabinetePrensaDiscursoAction.do

 

 

 

"The basic raw material is the ability to create and innovate."

"Last year was the European year of Innovation and Creation, and we saw then that it was important that cultural industries go beyond their own field of action. Nevertheless, this sector is not sufficiently exploited and finds itself with problems as, for instance, intelectual property. It is important that we go ahead to overcome these problems."

 

 

"Social Networking is essential. There is no doubt that we will end up getting close to the European level of the use of social networking. Perhaps, it is that we have the temptation to control the internet as we did in the past to control other things. I hope that it won't happen this time with the Internet."

 

"Cultural industries have a strong social impact in terms of cohesion, social development and of sens of belonging, as well."

 

 

 

The complete Agenda for Culture

www.eu2010.es/en/presidencia/programacultural/index.html

 

An impressive overview of the main activity developed by the cultural sector in Catalonia

ICIC:Catalan Cultural Industries in figures

 

Mayor of Óbidos. His creative Óbidos Strategy has transformed this Portuguese municipality in a prominent cultural and tourist destination. His approach is connected with the European Debate on Creativity and Innovation. Please find attached his CV

CV Telmo Faria

 

Essayist and Popular Science Writer. He will give the Opening Conference at the Forum. Here is his CV (in Spanish)

CVPunset

 

First attempt in Europe to highlight the contribution of the cultural & creative sector towards the Lisbon Agenda. Follow the link below:

ec.europa.eu/culture/key-documents/doc873_en.htm

 

An active writer, researcher & conference speaker on technology, culture & business innovation who will be talking at the Forum. Here is his CV

Michel Bauwens_cv.pdf

 

Professor of Economics at University Paris 13. She is one of the Forum Speakers. Please find attached her CV

CV Françoise Benhamou

 

A member of the European Parliament since 1989. Chairwoman of the Committee on Culture & Education. She is one of the Speakers at the Forum. Please find attached her CV

CV Doris Pack