3 Culture 2007 programme
| (25859)
11572/04
COM(04) 469
+ ADD 1
| 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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| Department | Culture, Media and Sport
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| Basis of consideration | SEM of 4 November 2004
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| Previous Committee Report | HC 42-xxxiii (2003-04), para 4 (20 October 2004)
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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; information on progress requested
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Background
3.1 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.
3.2 The Community also has programmes to support
the European Capitals of Culture initiative and to promote European
cultural organisations.
3.3 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. The
annex to the document (ADD 1) contains an extended impact assessment
of the proposal.
3.4 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.
3.5 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.
3.6 These three objectives would be pursued through:
- support for cross-border cooperation
projects, each serving at least two of the objectives, and 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.
3.7 The Commission proposes to streamline the grant
process: for example, to improve information for applicants, simplify
application procedures and pay flat-rate grants for small contributions.
3.8 When we considered the document on 20 October,
the Minister for the Arts at the Department for Culture, Media
and Sport (Estelle Morris) told us that the proposal is broadly
in line with the Government's view about the direction the new
programme should take.[7]
She welcomed the intention to simplify the administrative and
financial arrangements. But she told us that the Government would
be seeking amendments to sharpen the programme's objectives and
to ensure that there is an effective monitoring, evaluation and
impact assessment system.
3.9 The Minister said that the proposed budget (€408
million) represents a small increase in real terms in 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.
3.10 The Minister added that her Department's external
consultations on the new programme began in August and would not
be completed until 29 October. A summary of the responses would
be published.
3.11 We recognised the benefits of bringing the present
three programmes together into one new programme with fewer and
clearer objectives. We welcomed the intention to simplify the
grant procedures. The current draft of the Decision did not appear
to us to raise issues of subsidiarity or proportionality and the
legal base is appropriate.
3.12 There is scope for more than one view about
whether the proposed budget is too small, too large or about right.
But that cannot be settled until the negotiations on the next
Financial Perspective have been completed. Meanwhile, we asked
the Minister for a supplementary Explanatory Memorandum on the
results of the Government's consultations on the proposal.
Key findings of the consultations
3.13 The Minister tells us that her Department received
19 responses to the consultation paper. They came from the Devolved
Administrations, other Government Departments, the Arts Council,
the British Museum and others.
3.14 The Minister summarises the key findings as
follows:
" Nearly all [the] respondents welcomed
the proposals. They thought they were an improvement on the current
Culture 2000 programme, especially as the Commission proposes
to simplify the application process.
Several respondents expressed concern that
the smaller cultural operators might not be able to participate.
Nearly all welcomed the proposals to promote
the mobility of persons and collections, and the emphasis on intercultural
dialogue.
Some respondents thought that they could
benefit from better dissemination of information on eligibility
for the programme's funding."
3.15 A fuller summary of the responses is to be published.
The Minister says that the findings from the consultations will
be used to strengthen the Government's position in the negotiations
on the draft Decision.
Conclusion
3.16 We are grateful to the Minister for this
information and we draw it to the attention of the House.
3.17 We see nothing in the Minister's summary
of the key findings to lead us to depart from the preliminary
conclusions we reached when we first considered the draft Decision.
We ask the Minister to keep us informed of the progress of the
negotiations on the proposal. Meanwhile, we shall keep the document
under scrutiny.
7 See headnote. Back
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