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The enlargement of the European Union (EU) this year has given a dynamic new perspective to cultural co-operation in Europe. Rod Fisher explains how one European body is working to increase international collaboration.

For those engaged in the arts, EU enlargement is both an opportunity and a challenge. It is an opportunity in as much as the cultural diversity of the EU will be enriched by the direct participation of ten new countries in the evolution of a policy framework for EU cultural activities. Artists and arts organisations from countries as diverse as Estonia, Malta, Poland and Slovenia will now be able, in theory at least, to engage fully in the European cultural space (though obstacles ? not least a lack of resources ? will continue to constrain cross-border cultural co-operation on a basis of parity with better-off EU states such as the UK.) The challenge of enlargement is how to reap the benefits by ensuring that arts practitioners from those countries now bordering the EU?s extended Eastern boundaries and the Mediterranean Rim states are not excluded from co-operation in ?Fortress? Europe.

The European Cultural Foundation (ECF), currently celebrating its 50th anniversary, has been a leading advocate for ensuring a cultural dimension to EU enlargement and within the development of the European Convention (i.e. the new EU Constitution). The alliance of cultural organisations, European networks, foundations, political and intellectual opinion that ECF was able to forge, ensured some partial success in its lobbying on the sensitive issue of the Convention (though culture remains a ?supporting action? rather than a ?shared competence? of the EU). In July, at its ?Sharing Cultures? conference in Rotterdam, ECF and the European Forum for Arts and Heritage published a petition signed by some 500 institutions and individuals calling on EU Ministers of Culture to develop a new strategy to enhance mobility, strengthen co-operation and consolidate trans-frontier networks.

A history of co-operation

As Europe?s longest established Foundation dedicated to trans-frontier cultural co-operation, ECF has promoted East-West cultural dialogue since Cold War days. Today, the ?wider Europe? perspective is being applied to all ECF programmes and initiatives, setting an agenda that extends beyond the Accession States to incorporate neighbouring countries that border the EU. A manifesto issued in 2003 at a conference organised by the ECF in conjunction with the Escuela Traductores de Toledo, served to remind policy-makers that EU enlargement to the East should not be at the expense of ?closing Southwards?. Similar concerns were registered by artists and policy-makers in South-East Europe at an ECF conference in Amsterdam last year.

Among the ECF?s areas of interest are:

- Intercultural competence and collaboration across borders
- Increased participation in the arts through linking creative practice and social development
- Changing cultural infrastructures through more participatory decision-making and knowledge transfer across borders
- Creative responses to current political issues such as multiculturalism.

The ECF?s mobility scheme, ?STEP beyond?, was created to stimulate trans-frontier cultural co-operation between practitioners in the 15 states that made up the EU prior to May this year, the new Member States and those countries on the Eastern border. British photographer Tessa Bunney, for example, travelled to Romania with ECF support through STEP beyond to develop a major photographic project on how landscape is shaped by human activity through agriculture and associated traditions. In addition to ECF-run programmes, the Foundation supports independent cultural projects with a European or international dimension. In 2003 it made grants to 68 organisations worth e1.25m. Awards are modest and most go to small- or medium-sized organisations. The ECF ?seal of approval? can also attract monies from other sources. Moreover, the Foundation is noted for supporting projects in regions and areas that fall outside the remit of other funding avenues. Recent awards made to UK-led international initiatives include Chapter in Cardiff for ?Theatrum Europa 04?, a seven week programme of performances with talks and film screenings from artists across the world, and Aldeburgh Productions for a digital portrait by young people of village life across Europe. The Directors Guild of Great Britain organised a meeting in Alexandria, Egypt, of theatre directors from Europe and the South Mediterranean with ECF assistance. The ECF also supported the Bata-ville project, an artist-led, participatory film project developed by Commissions East, which takes former employees of the Bata shoe factories in England on a journey back to the origins of this empire in the Czech Republic.

ECF in the UK

ECF is supported by national committees in more than 20 European countries. The UK National Committee, administered by International Intelligence on Culture, has instigated a programme of international seminars in association with the Royal Institute of International Affairs. The aim has been to provide a forum where cultural practitioners and policy-makers can engage in a wider European cultural discourse. Eight seminars have been held to date on issues such as ?What values underpin cultural policies in Europe??, and ?EU support for culture ? Rhetoric or reality??. This is the first time that Chatham House, one of the world?s leading institutes for the analysis of international issues, has featured debates on culture. The final seminar in the series, ?Europe: United or divided by culture??, is being held on January 28, 2005. Among the speakers will be Dr Garett Fitzgerald, former Prime Minister of Ireland; Ion Caramitru, Romanian actor and former Minister of Culture; Gottfried Wagner, Director of ECF headquarters in Amsterdam; and John Tusa, Director, Barbican Centre.

Rod Fisher is Director of International Intelligence on Culture and Joint Director of the European Cultural Foundation UK Committee. t: 020 7403 0777; e: ecf@intelculture.org; w: http://www.eurocult.org