At the community level
Culture has been a European Union competence since the Maastricht Treaty of 1992. Since then, France has worked to ensure that cultural policies take their full place within European policies. Thus, in recent years, the Ministry of Culture and Communication has grown in importance in the community domain:
- The European Union’s cultural action has developed through strong initiatives such as the European Capitals of Culture, the future European Heritage Label, or the CULTURE programme. The Minister for Culture and Communication represents France at meetings of the Council of European Ministers for Culture. The MCC consults very regularly with the other Member States. In particular, it developed close Franco-German cooperation, which was the driving force behind European dynamics. The MCC has been very active, alongside successive presidencies, in promoting the place of culture in Community policies.
- The European Union has been active in the audiovisual field for several years. In this context, MCC ensures that the cultural specificities of Member States are well understood in all its policies. To operate optimally, the single European market needs a minimum set of common rules covering, among other things, advertising, programme production and protection of minors on the Internet, as well as major digital changes.
In the field of heritage, the MCC participates in the Open Method of Coordination (OMC), a non-binding method of coordination of public policies between the Member States of the European Union, based on the voluntary cooperation of the States. Under this OMC, the European Commission has created a Collections Mobility Working Group to bring national legislation in this area closer together (common objectives and indicators, sharing of good practice, peer review, etc.).
In 2005, at the initiative of France, various Member States of the European Union decided to create the Label du European heritage. Now taken up by the European Commission, the European Heritage Label aims to highlight the European dimension of cultural goods, monuments, cultural sites, places of memory etc. , witnesses of the history of Europe or of European construction. Only one site can be labeled every two years. To date, 29 European sites have been labeled including 3 French: the Abbey of Cluny (Burgundy), the house of Robert Schuman (Lorraine) and the European district of Strasbourg (Alsace).
MCC is heavily invested in community work and reflection on audiovisual services. It is based on specific programmes, such as the MEDIA programme, the European Union programme to strengthen and develop the film and audiovisual industry in Europe, or European Union relay centres, such as the MEDIA Desk France.
- The impact that other EU policies can have on the cultural sector: tax policy, competition policy, initiatives to strengthen the internal market, etc... The MCC is very present in interdepartmental bodies to ensure that cultural issues are taken into account in these various policies and to promote a global approach to the cultural ecosystem. In the field of the internal market, it follows very closely the work undertaken on the future of VAT. International trade negotiations, also, because of their connection to cultural diversity issues, are also an area where MCC’s control is exercised.
Literary and artistic property is also an area in which the European Union intervenes in a binding manner (directives) under the internal market. MCC is very heavily involved in the follow-up of these files, which are in full evolution in the digital age.
In order to allow the integration of French cultural operators in European cultural cooperation, the Ministry supports the Relay Culture Europe, French contact point of the European Union and resource centre on European cultural policies. Its mission is to accompany and inform project leaders in their search for funding. The Relay Culture Europe also organises information meetings, at the request of the Ministry on European news, especially on heritage issues.