At the occasion of the European Culture Forum (20/21 October 2011, Brussels) the three civil society platforms – Access to Culture Platform, Platform on Cultural and Creative Industries and Platform for Intercultural Europe – presented a Joint Statement on the importance of the Structured Dialogue process in culture. 1 | JOINT STATEMENT The structured dialogue process launched by the European Commission (EC) in June 2008 is a pioneer initiative, which has been warmly welcomed by the sector as a means to increase participation and transparency in European cultural policy-making. It is an essential tool to ensure that cultural stakeholders, including at regional and local level, and Member States are involved in elaborating effective and comprehensive policies which have culture and creativity at their core. Indeed, the dialogue process is essential to reach the objectives of the European Agenda for Culture. The civil society Platforms’ side of this process represents a large spectrum of civil society actors. Most of them are European and international networks, organisations and foundations representing thousands of national and local players. The civil society Platforms are unique in their representation, diversity and expertise as well as valuable allies in bringing in grassroots expertise to policy making. They voice the concerns of both the arts and industry segments of the European cultural sector, as well as of a large variety of civil society organisations from different policy fields engaged in transversal cultural issues such as social NGOs. This dialogue can be particularly fruitful if the European Commission takes up the work done by the OMC working groups and by the three Platforms (Access to Culture Platform, Platform on Cultural and Creative Industries and Platform for Intercultural Europe) within its political strategy. The European Commission should give value to the dialogue process by letting its results flow into its current and future work plans and also its programmes such as the future ‘Creative Europe’. The civil society Platforms welcome the Conclusions of the Council on the Work Plan for Culture 2011-2014. They support its call on the Commission to ‘regularly inform, on the one hand, the Member States of the work of the civil society structured dialogue Platforms and, on the other, inform these Platforms of the work carried out in the context of the Work Plan’. The Platforms also welcome the establishment of six ‘priority areas’ (Cultural diversity, intercultural dialogue and accessible and inclusive culture; Cultural and Creative Industries; Skills and mobility; Cultural heritage, including mobility of collections; Culture in External Relations; Culture Statistics) supported by corresponding OMC working groups. 2 | THE CIVIL SOCIETY PLATFORM ON ACCESS TO CULTURE The Access to Culture Platform advocates for Culture as a fundamental right of all citizens; it positions access to Culture in a human/cultural rights perspective, places access to Culture upstream in cultural policy-making (with a strong call to also mainstream Culture in other policy fields) and formulates clear priority areas for action to develop the conditions of creation, education and participation across Europe. To advocate for these standpoints the Platform produced its Policy Guidelines and a comprehensive Tool Kit. In the frame of the Commission’s proposed budget and legal basis for a new culture programme ‘Creative Europe’, the Access to Culture Platform calls the European Parliament and Member States to endorse the budgetary means for arts and Culture and calls to the Finance Ministers of Member States in particular to support the Commission’s proposal. The Platform welcomes the emphasis on investment on human capital, citizens in Europe, and the proposed increase in budget. The Platform at the same time stresses the need to have greater emphasis on the dimensions of creativity, creation, research, access and the complete value chain of processes of artistic creation swerving from the more present economic dimension of benefits which can be reaped by cultural activity. The Platform welcomes the introduction of the concept of creative partnerships – inclusive between public and private sector – and would alert to the importance to stimulate the private sector to participate by co-financing initiatives and projects for regional development and its acceptance as eligible co-financing in regional development projects which would serve as an incentive for development in marginalized regions in Europe where public authorities are economically week and there is outspoken needs for all good forces to work together. 3 | THE PLATFORM ON CULTURAL AND CREATIVE INDUSTRIES Following the adoption of the Council Work Plan for Culture 2011-2014, the platform on cultural and creative industries welcomes the establishment of a renewed, effective dialogue between the Commission, the stakeholders and the OMC working group on Cultural and Creative Industries. From that point of view, the platform is pleased to have been invited to present its work on the use of structural funds during the first meeting of the OMC working group on this topic on the 7th of June 2011. The platform hopes that this first formal meeting with national experts will be followed by an effective cooperation on the other issues listed in the Council Work Plan, such as mobility and circulation or the financing of cultural and creative industries. In this perspective, the platform expects the European Commission and the OMC working group on Cultural and Creative Industries to effectively monitor the work of the platform. In particular, the platform will be attentive to the incorporation of its 2011 policy recommendations in the next initiatives carried out by the European Commission and the Council in the field of cultural and creative industries. The platform will assess the efficiency of the structured dialogue through the lens of the effective use of its recommendations. 4 | PLATFORM FOR INTERCULTURAL EUROPE Our expectations for the “Creative Europe” programme: As part of the Structured Dialogue, the Platform for Intercultural Europe conducted a study on the implementation of the objective ‘Intercultural Dialogue’ in the current EU Culture Programme. We contributed our findings to the consultation for the preparation of a new Culture programme. Based on this work, we recommend that the forthcoming “Creative Europe” programme 2014-2020: • Promote cultural diversity and intercultural engagement in Europe. • Support the capacity of cultural actors to enhance cultural participation and representation of people of all backgrounds and identities, including migrants and ethnic minorities. • Support the capacity of cultural actors to produce intercultural experiences for diverse audiences. The programme must contribute to transversal policy-making in the EU by applying the principle of ‘integration through participation’ set out in the EU Agenda for the Integration (COM 2011, 455 final) also in the cultural domain. Our expectation for the Open Method of Coordination in the field of culture: The Platform for Intercultural Europe has been the prototype for the creation of Structured Dialogue platforms in the cultural sector. It welcomed the introduction of the Open Method of Coordination in the field of culture and has campaigned for the setting up of an OMC expert group that would be its true content partner since 2008. An expert group to promote better access to and wider participation in culture as well as cultural diversity and intercultural dialogue was set up in 2011. The focus in 2011 was on the cultural access and participation of children, disabled people, the elderly and socio-economically disadvantaged people. We expect 2012 to be dedicated to intercultural dialogue and the cultural participation of migrants and ethnic minorities, and look forward to full collaboration with the OMC group on this topic. Download the document and find out more at www.Access-to-Culture.eu.