COMMISSION AGENCY LEAVES APPLICANTS IN THE LURCH
Despite successive announcements over the past few months promising to publish the results of the application process concerning, among others, the community action programme to promote bodies active at European level in the cultural field in February, April, May and June, the newly founded Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency of the European Commission has so far failed to do so. With the first half of 2006 over, organisations like the ECA are forced to reduce their activities to a minimum, have to resort to bank credits and do not even know whether they will be accepted or not. In fact, the ECA has not even been paid the complete EU funding for 2005.
At the same time, now that the European Union has ratified the UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions (cf. below) including provisions such as Article 11 (Participation of civil society) and 12 (Promotion of international cooperation), organisations like ECA with a long tradition in promoting the ideas of the Convention and depending to a large degree on EU support, are in danger of collapsing. This is an outrage.
Nevertheless, the June EC meeting in Prague (which could not be financed by ECA) decided to continue working even though the financial situation actually does not permit us to do so and it is possible only due to the fact that because the ECA General Secretary Pia Raug has generously offered to do unpaid work to the limits of her capacities and that the Council of Danish Artists, our office host in Copenhagen, has promised continued support for the upcoming months. Should ECA fail to receive funding from the Commission and no other financial sources is found as an alternative, the Berlin ECA Congress in November will have to decide on the future of the organisation.
CONVENTION RATIFIED BY EU PARLIAMENT AND COMMISSION
ECA welcomes a comparatively fast ratification of the UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions by the EU Parliament and Commission in April. ECA members from all over Europe have urged their MEPs and MPs in the national parliaments to expedite the ratification process. The Convention will be effective only after it is ratified by all 25 parliaments of the EU members and the relative documents are deposited at the UNESCO headquarters in due course.
ECA INTENSIFIES CONTACTS WITH DECISION-MAKERS
Over the past few months ECA has established many contacts with national and European parliamentarians, commission representatives and other European level decision-makers. Our initiatives concerning the future of cross-border online distribution of music (cf. below), the ratification process and the implementation of the UNESCO Convention etc. have resulted in serious talks and correspondence with politicians and senior officials all over Europe and have even been reflected in amendments and precisions of official negotiation documents.
It has been due to ECA’s return to the European stage that our Berlin conference will be attended by more MEPs and similarly important partners in the field of cultural policies than any other ECA event before.
THE COMMISSION RECOMMENDATION ON ON-LINE DISTRIBUTION OF MUSIC
In connection with this very disturbing recommendation threatening the concept of authors’ rights in the future digital world, one of the unique objectives of ECA has proven effective and vital. A clear decision was formulated at the Vilnius annual meeting to strengthen the ECA efforts to become a true networking centre for collecting and dispersing essential cultural political information whenever artists’ concerns are in jeopardy.
By collecting and dispersing vital information among members and other networking partners it has been possible for ECA to help raise the level of information and awareness with the European Parliamentarians of the implications for artists if the recommendation text should be taken up and implemented by national governments.
The net-work of information exchange has included, among others, the Swedish ECA-member KLYS, Greek authors’ rights lawyers, Slovenian advisers, Irish, Norwegian and Portuguese composers directly, as well as the Authors’ Rights Societies and creators of all artistic disciplines present at the CISAC General Assembly in Paris, June 1, where Pia Raug gave a speech.
Based on this collected knowledge and alongside with the ECA appeal to its membership to take individual action, an information campaign was organized, promoted and paid by the Danish Association of Composers Djbfa (of which ECA General Secretary Pia Raug is Vice-Chair) in cooperation with a Danish and Brussels-based communication partner, Interel. Pia Raug and the Djbfa Secretary General went to Brussels with the Interel people on June 20 to hold meetings with parliamentarians from the Cultural and Legal Committees, including talks with Manolis Mavrommatis, Committee Vice-Chair who drafted the initial suggestions presented to the Committee.
The result of this joint effort has proven very valuable by the fact that many amendments have been submitted from many different committee members for the final discussion on July 12 in the Cultural Committee on how to remit their position to the Committee on Legal Affairs. Mr. Mavrommatis himself has already changed his stand radically, and we are convinced that this is due to the fact that the artists through their networks have had a chance to bring relevant information directly to the politicians just in the nick of time. Due to ECA’s central position, dedicated membership and a vast external network of partners it has been possible to provide the politicians with a more diverse basis for their final stand than the one-sided information given to the Commission by the professional lobbyists of the Industry.
After July 12 the Legal Committee will draw up its standpoint from the collected information for an advice towards the Parliament how to respond to the Commission in October.
The artists’ voices are still needed in the process, but have already made a remarkable difference.
PREPARATIONS FOR THE ECA BERLIN CONGRESS AND CONFERENCE
Despite financial uncertainties, the EC and the office continue preparing the annual congress and conference to be held in Berlin on 24–26 November 2006. While ECA and our German member IGBK have succeeded in attracting co-sponsors for this event, we nevertheless urge all ECA members and sympathizers of European artists’ solidarity in this crucial phase of our movement to help us with financial contributions, ideas and other tokens of support. The fact that the Berlin meeting can take place is due only to an incredible amount of work done on voluntary basis. This devotion of the staff and the EC is a very positive sign of commitment but cannot be sustained for a period longer than several months.
Please check our website eca@eca.dk for the preliminary programme and organisational details.
ECA EXPRESSES SOLIDARITY WITH SPANISH ACTRESSES
In an open letter the ECA reacted to a plea for solidarity of our Spanish member organisation (further information on our website eca@eca.dk ) :
The European Council of Artists (ECA), representing professional artists’ umbrella organisations in 25 countries across Europe is shocked at, and expresses its abhorrence of, the numerous e-mail messages and anonymous phone calls threatening our sisters from the Actors’ Union of Madrid for having distributed white roses in the parliament in support of the peace process designed to put an end to the decades of bloodshed and terrorism in their country. Rejecting all forms of violence used to achieve political goals and convinced that conflicts must be settled only by peaceful means, the ECA maintains that artists in the vanguard of civil society aiming at breaking vicious circles must not earn hatred and intolerance for their concerned civic efforts.
ECA INITIATIVE ON THE EUROPEAN ARREST WARRANT AND CONSEQUENCES FOR ARTISTS TO BE LAUNCHED
The EC has completed preparation work for the launch of an ECA initiative concerning the dangers facing artists as a result of the implementation of the European arrest warrant in 2002. The full text of the document will be available on our website eca@eca.dk as of 11 July 2006. Initially, it will be submitted to the Cultural Committee of the European Parliament and to the press.
ECA APPEALS FOR DONATIONS FROM MEMBERS AND SYMPATHISERS
Please help us overcome the financial dire straits
in which ECA has found itself due to no faults on its part
BANK ACCOUNT: Handelsbanken, Solbjergvej 10, DK-2000 Frederiksberg.
IBAN: DK79 7630 000 3000 244, Swift: HANDDKKK
The ECA Executive Committee
Ludwig Laher, writer, Austria, President
Narcy Calamatta, actor, Malta, Vice-President
Simon Pellar, translator, Czech Republic, Vice-President
Renate Christin, visual artist, Germany
Franz Ernst, film director, Denmark
Agnes Péter, sculptor, Hungary
Tomo Vran, visual artist, Slovenia
European Council of Artists, Borgergade 111, DK-1300 Copenhagen K, Denmark
phone: +45-35384401, fax: +45-35384417, e-mail: eca@eca.dk, web: www.eca.dk