4 Culture 2007 programme
| (25859)
11572/04
COM(04)469
+ ADD1
| Draft Decision establishing the Culture 2007 programme (2007-13)
Commission staff working paper — extended impact assessment
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| Legal base | Article 151(5) EC; co-decision; unanimity
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| Document originated | 14 July 2004
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| Deposited in Parliament | 27 August 2004
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| Department | Culture, Media and Sport
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| Basis of consideration | EM of 7 October 2004
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| Previous Committee Report | None
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| To be discussed in Council | No date set
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| Committee's assessment | Politically important
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| Committee's decision | Not cleared; further information requested
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Background
4.1 The Culture 2000 programme provides grants for cross-border
cultural cooperation projects in the performing and visual arts,
literature and cultural history. It runs from 2000 to the end
of 2006. Its total budget is €236.5
million.
4.2 The Community also has programmes to support
the European Capitals of Culture initiative and to promote European
cultural organisations.
4.3 Article 151 of the Treaty establishing the European
Community provides that the Community should "contribute
to the flowering of the cultures of the Member States". To
this end, the Community should encourage cooperation between Member
States. The Community and Member States should also foster cultural
cooperation with third countries and international organisations.
For these purposes, the Council may adopt incentive measures.
The document
4.4 The document comprises a draft Decision establishing
a Culture programme for 2007-13 and an explanatory memorandum.
The new programme would be the successor to the three existing
programmes, and have a total budget of €408
million.
4.5 The annex to the document (ADD 1) contains an
extended impact assessment of the proposal and includes a discussion
of two alternatives to it: one option would be to have no programme
at all after the end of 2006 and the other would be to roll forward
the existing programmes.
4.6 The Commission considers that the Culture 2000
programme has too many separate objectives, which inhibits cross-cultural
projects and causes unnecessary bureaucracy. Moreover, the existence
of separate programmes for culture, Capitals of European Culture
and support for European cultural organisations causes undesirable
rigidities. And the present grant and administrative arrangement
are too complicated and inflexible. The new programme is intended
to overcome these weaknesses.
4.7 The draft Decision provides that the Culture
2007 programme would have three specific objectives:
- to promote cross-border mobility
of people working in the cultural sector;
- to encourage cross-border circulation of cultural
works (such as art exhibitions, concerts, ballets and plays);
and
- to encourage intercultural dialogue.
4.8 These three objectives would be pursued through:
- support for cross-border cooperation
projects, each serving at least two of the objectives (for example,
a project bringing together musicians from several countries for
an international concert tour would serve the objectives of supporting
the mobility of people and encouraging the circulation of cultural
works). Support would be available not only for projects such
as cross-border art exhibitions and ballets but also for special
projects such as the European Capitals of Culture;
- support for European cultural bodies and for
the preservation of archives and memorials relating to, for example,
concentration camps and mass-deportations; and
- support for the collection and dissemination
of information about cultural cooperation.
4.9 Grants could be made to legal or natural persons.
The Commission proposes to streamline the process: for example,
to improve information for applicants, simplify application procedures
and pay flat-rate grants for small contributions.
4.10 Participation in the new programme would be
open to Member States, other EEA countries, and countries which
are candidates for membership of the Community or which have association
or cooperation agreements with the Community.
4.11 In administering the new programme, the Commission
would be assisted by a committee comprised of representatives
of Member States.
4.12 The Commission would be required to make reports
on an interim evaluation of the programme in 2010; on the continuation
of the programme in 2011; and on the outcome of the programme
in 2015.
The Government's view
4.13 The Minister for the Arts at the Department
for Culture, Media and Sport (Estelle Morris) tells us that the
proposal is broadly in line with the Government's view about the
direction the new programme should take. She welcomes the intention
to simplify the administrative and financial arrangements. She
says that:
"The UK feels that to be effective the objectives
for the Programme must be made more SMART (Specific, Measurable,
Achievable, Realistic and Timed) …. and will endeavour to
negotiate drafting suggestions to achieve this. Moreover, the
UK would like an effective monitoring, evaluation and impact assessment
system to measure the added value of proposals."
4.14 The Minister says that the proposed budget (€408
million) represents a small increase in real terms on the cost
of the three present programmes. But it will not be possible to
settle the budget until the negotiations on the total budget for
the 2007-13 Financial Perspective have been completed. The outcome
of those negotiations may affect the scale and priorities of the
new Culture programme.
4.15 The Minister adds that her Department's external
consultations on the new programme began in August and will not
be completed until 29 October. A summary of the responses will
be published.
Conclusion
4.16 We recognise the benefits of bringing the
present three programmes together into one new programme with
fewer and clearer objectives. We welcome the intention to simplify
the grant procedures. The current draft of the Decision does not
appear to us to raise issues of subsidiarity or proportionality
and the legal base is appropriate.
4.17 There is, of course, scope for more than
one view about whether the proposed budget is too small, too large
or about right. But, as the Minister says, that cannot be settled
until the negotiations on the next Financial Perspective have
been completed.
4.18 Both for that reason and because we should
be grateful for a supplementary Explanatory Memorandum on the
results of the Government's consultations on the proposal, we
shall keep the document under scrutiny.
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