The European Parliament adopted in December 2016 its first initial report on a coherent policy for cultural and creative industries.

A Report? A Coherent Policy? Nothing new, one might conclude on first sight.

However already the set up of the report in itself is a silent revolution: for the first time ever in the European Parliament the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy and the
Committee on Culture and Education established a joint report. Just if imagine local, regional and national parliaments would follow up and establish an eye level competence, reporting and decision-making of cultural and economical committees and department. This unified report has the potential to be the long awaited ice-breaker – breaking the cultural and creative sectors out off its silos in governments !

One of these silos is innovation policy: most nations and regions still prioritize technical innovation and even the OECD in its latest review of its innovation policy, the so-called „Oslo-Manual“, does not credit cultural and creative innovations. Such definitions are not just a matter of wording, but of closing or opening access to substanial amount of funds.For example in Germany the federal government innovation funds can amount up to 500 Mio. Euro, compared to the total federal budget for creative industries of approx 10 Mio. Euro.

Again the EP coherent report could prove to be a change maker in innovation policies by a 15 point program of how nations can open their innovation funding for cultural and creative sectors. In an own chapter the EP highlights several proposals, f.e.
– introduce an umbrella scheme that bridges the gap between R&D, European creative content production and technological innovation in the media field and beyond
– it is essential to overcome silo thinking in traditional policy areas and to promote cultural and creative spillovers;
– nourishing a pluralistic and diverse European landscape built on strong synergies between CCIs and technological innovation
– promote and support the creation, improvement and expansion of infrastructure which is key to supporting creative industries in Europe

The EP report touches almost all areas of debate in the cultural and creative sectors – in some areas formulates principles which are central frameworks for the local stakeholders in a global world:

„the need to keep cultural and audiovisual services outside the scope of the negotiating mandate for general free trade agreements, while pointing out that cultural and creative works have a dual and intrinsic value“

The EP report tries to strike the balance between the needs as well as the prejudices of both the economic and cultural world: though culture has an instrinic value which refrains it from main stream market mechanisms, it also has an economic value which needs to be supported by non main stream market mechanisms. Frameworks for the cultural and creative sectors are no monocropping, but multi-dimensional and complex; breaking department silos is no fun either – it is breaking decades of agreed exclusive competences. In this respect policies of cultural and creative sectors are the ice breaker for today transforming societies and goverments – circular economy, Internet 4.0, green mobility, smart cities: all need non-silo and non main stream solutions. While artists and creatives are named crown juwel by EU -President Juncker, they are at best hidden if not neglected crown juwels in economic policies across Europe – kind of still awaiting inaugration.

Bernd Fesel
Chair ECBN