At its meeting 21st of June in Bratislava ECA Executive Committee made the following comments to the consultation with regard to "Designing the future programme of cultural cooperation for the European Union after 2006":
1. Until now the Culture 2000 Programme has played an important supporting role in extending cultural dialogue between Europeans. It is therefore important that the future of this programme, or a programme along similar lines, be secured for years to come. However, we feel that improvements are possible in the following areas with regard to the programme and its criteria.
2. In our opinion, supporting and stimulating direct contacts and exchanges between artists from different regions and backgrounds is one of the most effective en efficient ways of encouraging mutual knowledge and dialogue in the cultural and artistic fields. In the past the possibilities for financial support for these artist-to-artists exchanges and cross-fertilization have been too limited and we would like the future programme of the European Union to address this.
3. Our assessment is that within the implementation of the Cultural 2000 programme the division between the operating costs of and the budget available for cultural activities is out of balance. Supporting measures at the European level must have a minimum of bureaucratic side-effects, especially where culture is concerned. Only then will the legitimacy of the European involvement be more broadly accepted and the widespread scepticism towards European cultural policies diminish.
4. The ECA finds that in the new Cultural 2000 Programme the main emphasis should consistently be more on supporting activities and programming costs rather than on the costs of (long-term) management, intermediaries and other organisational and exploitation costs. Activities and programming costs should include the costs of exhibitions, transport of works, translations and publications, small-scale concerts and master-classes, artists-in-residence programmes, etc. We strongly believe that artistic initiatives should not be judged (and discouraged!) within too narrow a thematic framework formulated at the institutional level.
5. Because of the success of the cultural programmes over the past years and the new possibilities opening up within the process of European enlargement, the budget available for European cultural programme should be raised substantially in the coming period. The above-mentioned emphasis on supporting activities and grass-root initiatives is only realistic if the European Commission, through other means such as the A-lines, continues to offer its backing and contribution to long-term projects and to the operating costs of cultural network organisations. The only way to ensure cultural policies function democratically is by providing the organized artists with a European platform for exchange and networking, and by letting them have a say in the drafting and implementation of these cultural policies.