BALKAN
CULTURAL
CO-OPERATION
CULTURAL
CO-OPERATION
European Parlament Members on Culture and Media in South Eastern Europe
Seventh Assembly of Experts and Parliament Members Held in “Sava” Centre Chaired by Mrs Doris Pack
How to bridge over gaps, find common attitudes and revive co-operation in the area of culture and media between the people and countries of our region – was the topic addressed on the seventh assembly of the European Parliament members network for South Eastern Europe. The assembly, chaired by Mrs Doris Pack - the chairwoman of the network and the European Parliament member - was held yesterday in the Belgrade “Sava” Centre.
It was expressed that for the renewal of all relations, but also for the economic revitalization and development of the region, culture is indeed perhaps more important than politics and politicians - which was in a way emphasized by the ambassador to the EU for the region Mr Jeffrey Barrett in his address of welcome. He promised on behalf of the European Union “opening of at least a small window for culture”, as did Mrs Doris Pack herself and Mrs Isabel Schwartz from the European Cultural Foundation. Our experts concluded through the analysis of the regional events in culture and of co-operation in the area of cultural policy that the situation in the region itself is still far from being satisfactory.
It was said that not even national cultural policies in South Eastern Europe could find a mode of reconciliation through culture, that Macedonia and Bosnia and Herzegovina even failed in writing national reports, that only Croatia succeeded in making the real strategy in this area (even if only officially, i.e. formally through legislative and constitutional acts), while in many other countries of the region solutions to cultural policy are based on the will and personal decisions of the politicians and local ministers (as stated by Mrs Milena Dragićević Ĺ ešić, rector of the University of Arts). On the other hand, cultural system is however slightly better according to Dr Dragićević Ĺ ešić: “ministries are less xenophobic than they used to be a few years ago, there are many inter-state visits and talks – but very few results and not much responsibility of our parliament members for cultural policy, which is proved by the fact that within three years of the reign of our new authorities not a single law from the area of culture entered parliamentary procedure, because obviously neither the Government or the Ministry of Culture were interested in it”.
The basic resource that we have for the integration into Europe is a creative human potential, namely human capital as our primary chance for the enlargement and reconstruction of the region itself, stated Mr Dimitrije Vujadinović (Balkankult). However, culture is not regarded as a development factor of the society in the South Eastern European countries. A drastic example is Serbia in which are still on the scene many culture related legal acts from the sixties. Current cultural models do not support mutual co-operation and exchange of cultural programs, although there is an expressible wish for it, said Mr Vujadinović. He mentioned the research of Balkankult into the work of cultural foundations of the region – according to the reports of some forty experts it was concluded that no country of the region had solved financial issues related to the encouragement of the work of foundations (stimulating tax systems, property issue and similar)! Mrs Lidija Verbanova from the Art and Culture Network of the Institute for an Open Society also spoke of it. Paraphrasing the words of ambassador Barrett she said that “in the South Eastern European region it is not about opening a window for culture, but it is about building a whole house”.
The experts emphasized yesterday the importance of building a privatization model for cultural property, as well as of the local development of cultural co-operation “because cultural development has got stuck between our capitals”, also the significance of developing cultural tourism and financial supporting of non-traditional, contemporary cultural and artistic forms.
- I am disappointed with the fact that nobody from the Serbian parliament came to such an important assembly, or from the parliament of the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro, as well as from the Ministry of Culture and Media. With all respect for current political problems, I cannot understand such marginalization of culture, media and our will as parliament members to help with the preparation of legislative solutions and models of cultural co-operation in the region – said Mrs Doris Pack for the “Politika”, surprised with the fact that she and her colleagues from the European Parliament managed to arrive from Brussels to the Belgrade meeting, whereas the colleagues from our parliaments and ministry did not.
The work of the assembly was continued yesterday in the afternoon with the
discussion on media.
D. Radović
Published: 2003-10-07
Updated: 2006-05-09
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