Statement by Sabine Verheyen MEP to the Beyond the Obvious Conference

December 3, 2019, 5:16 pm

From 23-23 October, Culture Action Europe hosted their 2019 conference, Beyond the Obvious: Culture Crops, in Konstanz, Germany and Kreuzlingen, Switzerland. Concluding several days of local cultural centre visits, project dialogues, and workshops, European Parliament CULT Committee Chair Sabine Verheyen MEP shared the following statement with conference guests.

“Rural land symbolizes romance or wilderness, is associated with agriculture and tourism, and is valued as an essential resource for human life. However, country and culture – this association is unfortunately a rather unusual one. There are many reasons for the quite low presence of cultural institutions in rural areas, but a particularly simple one probably has the greatest impact: one of the most important criteria for success in cultural work and cultural practice is the number of visitors, which is still used to prove social relevance. The less densely populated areas thus have a natural locational disadvantage, which is also reflected, for example, in the distribution of creative businesses and their concentration in urban centers.

Nevertheless, culture should and must be accessible to everyone, because the diversity of Europe’s cultural heritage is one of the continent’s greatest assets and a crucial part of our European identity.

Culture is essential for regional development in three dimensions. On the one hand, culture is an important source of employment; cultural heritage activities, cultural products and cultural industries contribute directly and indirectly to job creation. Secondly, culture is an increasingly important location factor in the choice of one’s center of life, as it promotes the image and attractiveness of a region and can play an important role in the modernization of rural areas. Thirdly, culture makes a positive contribution to social integration and thus to social cohesion.

The urgency of bringing culture also to Europe’s rural landscapes has by no means remained hidden from the EU. The European Commission, within the framework of the Regional Yearbook, first of all addressed such mundane-sounding questions as “Where does non-urban territory begin?” Only if common definitions are adopted, specific programs can be implemented jointly in all 28 EU member states. For example, the EU’s cohesion policy pursues Europe-wide goals, aiming not only to eliminate economic and territorial but also social imbalances. Currently, the budget for this important undertaking is around 1/3 of the total EU budget. We are even fighting for an increase in the budget for the new programming period from 2021 onward.

Another important area for strengthening rural cultural offerings is the expansion of digital infrastructure outside urban centers. The task of cultural policy today is also to create a digital framework for the exchange about artistic and cultural content and for digital art production. The Digital Europe Program, which will be implemented from 2021, is the first funding program dedicated exclusively to digital change in Europe. One of its aims is to attack the existing digital divide.

But as a lone warrior, the EU can do little. Cooperation with social stakeholders on cultural issues is essential. This is why the EU is organizing the dialogue series “Voices of Culture” to facilitate an exchange between representatives of the cultural and creative sectors of all European states and representatives of the European Commission. The next meeting will deal with ‘The Role of Culture in Non-Urban Areas of the European Union’ and will take place in February 2020.

Despite the efforts of the European Union in recent years, there is still a long road ahead. In coming years, solutions must be found to strengthen the cultural offers in all areas of social coexistence, urban and non-urban. Questioning the stereotypes of the countryside, the promotion of social innovation and creative participation, the creation of new networks of relationships in the context of immigration and questions relating to the transformation of occupational areas are just a few examples.

I would like to thank you for your commitment in this important field and believe in fruitful cooperation with stakeholders during the new legislative period. I wish you an interesting and successful conference and send you my best wishes from Brussels.

Sabine Verheyen MEP

Chairwoman of the Committee for Culture and Education (CULT)
Committee for Development (DEVE) & Committee for Budget Control (CONT)
Spokesperson for Municipal Policy of the CDU/CSU Group in the EP
Member of the Delegations for Panafrica & South Africa”

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