A NEWSLETTER TO IMPROVE COMMUNICATION WITHIN ECA
In order to inform the membership about ECA’s work, the Executive Committee has decided to issue an electronic bi-monthly newsletter. However, it will be the contributions that will decide whether members will consider the newsletter relevant for our common as well as particular efforts.
Apart from the EC keeping you abreast of all we do, we need your feedback. Tell us what you do on the national, regional or member organisation levels and we will make sure others are informed, too.
Right now we will be grateful for comments whether you think this newsletter could be a handy tool for the ECA to improve the communication among its constituency.
Please feel free to forward the newsletter as you see fit, be it to your country’s member or interested organisations, or even individual artists. In the future, an ECA Newsletter archive will be accessible at www.eca.dk.
UNESCO DIVERSITY CONVENTION PASSED BY HUGE MAJORITY
In October 2005, the UNESCO General Conference in Paris adopted the Convention on the Protection and the Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions. An overwhelming majority of 148 countries voted for the adoption, with just the US and Israel voting against the draft. The ECA was represented by President Ludwig Laher.
The ECA which had joined the International Network for Cultural Diversity (INCD) in 2000 was involved in the process of shaping this important document from the very beginning. In several countries, ECA representatives worked on the respective UNESCO commissions and did their best to influence the position of the governments.
The Convention which states that culture and art are more than just good and services, enables the signatories to keep up public subsidies and quotas. Also, it aims at preferential treatment of cultural goods and services from developing countries, underlines the importance of civil society structures for a flourishing cultural climate and urges the individual nations to co-operate with their respective NGOs.
Urging that culture be incorporated in development policies at all levels in order to create conditions conductive to sustainable development, the document is not subordinated to any other treaty and thus offers the signatories an effective tool to reject the rapacity of unrestricted business as advocated by the WTO. The first acid test of the viability of the tool will be the upcoming GATS Doha round.
The ECA which will monitor the ratification process in its member countries needs your help. Please make sure exert pressure on your politicians. Inform us about difficulties, obstacles or delays. We are prepared to take steps to lend you our support. Let us also know when your country has acceded to the treaty.
(http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-URL_ID=30298&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html)
ECA SUPPORTS IRISH ARTISTS TO RETAIN TAX EXEMPTION SCHEME
In letters to the Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern and several government ministers ECA supported the Irish colleagues in their struggle against the abolishment of the artists’ tax exemption scheme on the sale of original and creative works:
The European Council of Artists (ECA), representing professional artists’ umbrella organisations in 25 European countries, regrets the current discussions in Ireland concerning the abolishment of the artists’ tax exemption scheme. The Republic of Ireland is highly respected internationally, especially among the creative community, for the way it treats its artists. For a country of its size, Ireland can be proud of having produced a great many high profile artists. This reputation is its undisputed asset, and it would seem both worthy and wise to undertake proper research in order to see how much value the tax exemption scheme has added to the Irish economy and the cultural life of the nation.
In view of the fact that our globalised world is characterised by ever-growing cultural standardization, a vast number of nations including Ireland have only recently adopted the UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions. This document aims at having culture and art recognised as a value surpassing the purely economic category of commercial goods and services. It recognizes the sovereign right of nations to adopt appropriate measures in order to protect and foster their unique cultures that actually create cultural diversity. Tax exemptions on the sale of original and creative works of art represent one of the most effective means of promoting a truly flourishing cultural climate.
The ECA therefore urges the government of Ireland to retain the tax exemption scheme for creative artists as its abolishment would endanger Éire’s well-known, respected and also envied image of a nation doing its utmost for its culture and those who largely help making it, i.e. Irish creative artists.
APPLICATION FOR 2006 EUROPEAN COMMISSION SUPPORT SUBMITTED
Only weeks after the annual congress with its many decisions aimed at restructuring our organisation and improving its effectiveness, the ECA submitted its application for EU grants. We do hope that our efforts will prove successful. In the long run, however, we will have to find additional financial resources to be able to thrive and meet our ambitious goals.
NEW MEMBERSHIP DRIVE
The Executive Committee of the ECA aims at welcoming more members in our midst as early as the 2006 ECA Annual Congress. Contacts have been already established with Finland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Albania and Azerbaijan.
In some of these countries the establishment of artists’ organisation umbrellas has already started and the EC is ready to send its members to such constitutional congresses or appear at various forums to speak about ECA and the advantages of artists’ umbrella organisations in the European and global contexts.
However, as important as enlarging the membership is to actively seek solutions where internal problems or disagreements with the ECA have produced an unhappy state of affairs hindering our common goals. Relations must be mended as soon as possible with three member countries.
EC TO MEET FOR ITS FIRST WORKING SESSION
The new Executive Committee will meet in Copenhagen for its first working session in during the last weekend in November. It will be two days of intense discussions including an interview with the candidate for the office of an ECA General Secretary, Pia Raug. The EC will thus actually implement a decision made already at the 2004 ECA Congress.
Among the other major items of a rather extensive agenda are proposals to improve the transparency and control of the ECA finances, the question of appointing a treasurer and the election of two Vice-Presidents.
Discussed will be also the first results of the structural changes implemented so far. (Please note your comments are most welcome!) Furthermore the EC will focus on policy fields to be emphasized during the first half of 2006 and pave the way for the next conference and congress.
We are pleased to inform you that from the very first day of the new EC’s existence, all relevant issues and official documents have been formulated and decided jointly following consultations via e-mail or phone. Principles of democratic collective decision-making as well as full transparency have been re-established.