Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-03-10-Speech-1-073"
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"en.20030310.4.1-073"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, not only in the Committee on Culture, Youth, Education, the Media and Sport and here in the plenary are GATS and culture the subject of the most in-depth discussion; they are also being discussed everywhere where people make art and culture their business, and there is great disquiet about it – resulting from a lack of information, deficient transparency, and concern about the excessive influence on culture and the audiovisual sector exerted by market forces. I might add that the extent of the disquiet and the size of the information gap are also demonstrated by the day of action and protest against GATS to be mounted this coming Thursday in many European capital cities – in Rome, Paris, London and Vienna – by school and higher education students and trade unionists, which will be a day of European education and action.
The concept of a cultural industry makes this development more marked. Critics are concerned that, in this field, countries are seen as growth areas subject to market mechanisms and capable of developing their own dynamics going far beyond what was originally laid down. One example of this is the American proposal for promoting the import of virtual goods, at the same time as removing such things as audiovisual programmes via the Internet from the GATS safeguard clauses, something that must be firmly rejected.
Not only is cultural diversity to be respected; it must also be safeguarded. Although what is termed the cultural exception in the GATS negotiations is meant to be an exception from the usual rules of competition, the fact that the concept has never acquired legal force justifies the questions that are being asked and the concern that is felt as to whether that is sufficient to maintain our values. Or do we not need an international legal instrument whereby it is acknowledged that states have the right to determine cultural policy on the basis of their own needs, and to take measures of their own to promote artistic endeavour and public audiovisual services?
Cultural diversity does not mean limiting oneself to one's own borders and cutting the industry back; it is about being open to diversity, and that means giving it a chance to survive."@en1
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