Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-06-06-Speech-3-205"
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"en.20070606.20.3-205"2
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".
Mr President, as Mrs Gibault is not available this evening, she asked me, first of all, to convey to you her apologies and her regret for being unavailable and then, to present this important report in her place.
Mrs Gibault looked into this idea. She proposes the view that it would be sufficient, in a spirit of cultural solidarity at European level, for Member States to examine, each one for what concerns it, a way of deducting a part of the revenue generated by the commercial exploitation of works and using it to fund artistic creation and improvement in the social circumstances of European artists. That would enable the emergence of new support to foster innovation and pluralism and to encourage new forms of cultural expression. That is a very fine vision of intergenerational solidarity.
In conclusion, I should like to quote these words, which Victor Hugo, once again, spoke at a public meeting before French Members of Parliament: ‘We are all one family, the dead belong to the living, the living must be protected by the dead’. What finer protection could you wish for?
If there exists a universal bond that brings all of us together, as European citizens, beyond our differences, it is indeed culture. Europe is today on the way to achieving its goal, as it has managed to play its role in facing up to globalisation in order to preserve its identities and cultural diversity. The European ‘cultural exception’ is, today, on the way to becoming universal.
Mrs Gibault made a commitment when she was elected to this Parliament, to intercede with the European authorities on behalf of all European artists. This report has given her the opportunity to do so, through my speech this evening and all the work that she has done. She wishes me, in this connection, to thank on her behalf all the shadow rapporteurs and all the many colleagues, who have worked alongside her and taken part in the final drafting of this text.
The choice of the theme of the situation of artists in Europe imposed itself upon her: it was something she felt very strongly about because of her profession and her occupation as an orchestral conductor. Like Albert Camus, she is convinced that we have to choose to put culture at the centre of our model of society, that we must make creative activity and free access to culture one of our European priorities.
Contrary to generally accepted ideas, most of the difficulties encountered by artists are not solely of a cultural nature, but they are linked, often, with their mobility, with visa policy, with health, with social security, with problems of unemployment and pensions. Mrs Gibault considered practical measures to improve the daily life of artists and she proposes, in particular, the introduction of a specific visa which would make their mobility easier. She thought of a European professional register to combat illegal employment and, also, a European Social Security card with an electronic chip to make it easier to piece together artistic careers. Mrs Gibault proposed also the publication of a practical handbook for artists which would contain, in a parallel text, the welfare provisions relevant to them laid down by European institutions and their application in different Member States.
She stressed the need to promote formal artistic education, since for all of us, that is an issue that poses a real European cultural challenge. Therefore, without the willingness of the European Union to put in place specific policy in relation to artistic education, it is easy to see that there will be no progress in gaining audiences and making access to culture more democratic.
Her report was, therefore, voted for unanimously on 7 May, in the Committee on Culture and Education. It is innovatory and represents real progress for artists, as it takes into account both their precarious situation and the need to retain flexibility in their activities and proposes solutions giving artists the prospect of more continuity in their future and, therefore, of greater peace of mind.
Tomorrow, some amendments will be put to the vote, in particular two amendments that Mrs Gibault feels strongly about, because they would give a new impetus to creative artistic activity and would stimulate risk-taking in the sector, which is very much in need of it today. As her report says, moreover, in order to make progress on these aspects, it is a matter of analysing above all the results of the relevant survey by the Commission, taking into account the advantages and the drawbacks.
Community law, when looked at more closely, has not been as indifferent towards culture as one might imagine. Mrs Gibault has included in her report an idea already developed, in their time, by Victor Hugo and Alfred de Vigny, according to which artists, after their death, can continue to contribute to the support of their contemporaries. The international provisions to which the Union has subscribed authorise Member States to take the measures necessary to protect their cultural heritage,which is built up, among other things, by works that are free of copyright, that is, those that become out of copyright 70 years after the death of the author and 50 years after the first performance of a work."@en1
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