ECA STATEMENT ON THE POSITION OF THE EUROPEAN UNION IN THE NEGOTIATIONS ON THE CONVENTION ON THE DIVERSITY OF CULTURAL CONTENTS AND ARTISTIC EXPRESSIONS


Introduction

In September 2004 the European Commission claimed negotiating responsibility for a number of provisions of the UNESCO Draft Convention on the Protection of the Diversity of Cultural Contents and Artistic Expressions on behalf of EU member states.
Although EU competences are doubtlessly touched upon in the document, this claim came very late and much to the surprise of the concerned public, because the European Union is not a member of UNESCO, there is no fixed procedure for such a situation and European Commission representatives never adequately raised the possibility in related meetings and conferences in the months prior to September 2004.
ECA regrets this development because it caused suspicion and protest among civil society and NGO members in Europe concerning transparency and the democratic approach to the drafting process in Europe.


Background

The proposed Convention on the protection of the diversity of cultural contents and artistic expressions will in several aspects affect the acquis communautaire.
It touches upon some exclusive and some shared competences of the Union in particular where related to trade policies as well as free movement of people and free movement of goods and services; audiovisual and media policy (namely Television without Frontiers directive and the Media Programme) as well as development policies.


Reaction of the Commission

Even though it had been obvious that the European Commission would most probably have to get involved in the UNESCO process, the consultations started only when UNESCO officially released the draft text.


Possible Scenarios

It is possible that the Commission will negotiate on behalf of the member states on those issues that fall under the exclusive or shared competences of the Union. However, it is expected that the EU member states will be also requested to coordinate their positions on other provisions of the Convention. In that case the country presiding the Union at the time of the meeting would speak on behalf of all member states.
This, however, raises a question about UNESCO’s response in accommodating the Commission’s request to participate in negotiations, because the EC is not a member of UNESCO. At the moment, the UNESCO Commission is discussing possibilities to allow the European Commission to become a party signatory of the Convention.


ECA position

ECA is aware of the fact that even though culture is a competence of the EU member states, some parts of the Convention fall within the joint EU competences.

ECA urges its members to continue lobbying in each country in order to ensure that governments remain active in the debate and influence the joint position in favour of an effective convention. First and foremost keep involved in the respective teams of the national UNESCO commissions.

ECA will also communicate our position to the European Council, the European Commission and the Presidency of the European Union.

ECA urges the member states of the European Union to recognize the importance of an effective binding convention and to take a firm position in the upcoming consultations.



ECA Executive Committee
Regensburg 15th of November 2004