Lithuania Eu Cultural Policy Area Essays

Lithuania Eu Cultural Policy Area Essays Lithuania Eu Cultural Policy Area Essay Lithuania Eu Cultural Policy Area Essay Lithuanian Cultural Policy and the European Union The cultural policy has been adopted by the European Union during the 1990s with the aim of creating a European identity which would bring the people of Europe closer and which would lead them to identify themselves as â€Å"Europeans†. On the other hand, the cultural policy adopted by the Union remained supplementary in its character as the member states did not want to lose their sovereignties, especially on such an issue that underlines the national identities, (Sassatelli, 436) As a result, the European cultural policy became one that respects and tries to protect the national cultures of the member states on the one hand, while it tries to create a European culture and identity on the other. In other words, the main aim of the European cultural policy is to create unity in diversity. Sassatelli, 30) Although it is supplementary in character and although the Union is not the decision maker in the cultural matters, the member states are expected to follow the cultural policy of the Union which suggests them to protect their national heritage, cooperate with other member states in cultural matters, to promote an inclusive national culture, to adopt a democratic, open and competitive national cultural policy. Lithu ania, which became a member of the European Union in 2004, had a different cultural policy understanding than the Union and its member states as it was a Communist country. With the end of Communism and with the aim of becoming a member of the European Union, Lithuania has changed its cultural policy and shaped the new policy according to the idea of cultural policy adopted by the Union; a competitive, inclusionary, and based on cooperation. European Union Cultural Policy The first steps towards the establishment of a cultural policy in the European Union were taken during the late 1970s, when the European Union was European Community. In the 1973 with the wave of enlargement and with the economic crisis the Community faced, the member states signed a Declaration of the European Identity. With the Declaration they stated that the member states of the Community share common attitudes and their aim is to build a society which gives priority to the individuals. (Bozoki, 2) The low turn out in the first direct elections for the European parliament made the Community to realize that there was a need to take measures for unification of peoples of Europe as it became obvious that economic integration alone would not lead to such thing. In 1984, the European Council set up a Committee for a People’s Europe. The main aim of the Committee was to take necessary measures to strengthen the European identity. The Committee produced two reports in both of which it was suggested to increase cooperation between the member states in the area of culture, information, and communication. The reports also argued for the development of cultural projects in the form of cultural exchanges, town twining schemes, and youth programs (Bozoki 3). However, the reports were away from proposing a common cultural policy. Another attempt to create a European cultural policy came in the mid 1980s when the Community was preparing itself to the Single European Act, which created the internal market. In 1985, the Delors Commission started to implement the proposals of the Committee for a People’s Europe. During the time the blue flag with twelve stars were adopted as the official flag of the Community. European passports, driving licenses were introduced together with the European postage stamps. (Bozoki, 3) The European Cultural Area was created with the aim of promoting educational exchanges, translation of literary works, and town twining schemes. Another program that was adopted during the time was the Cultural Capitals of Europe. The European Union has legalized its cultural policy with the Treaty of Maastricht, the treaty establishing the European Union, for the first time in 1991. The 151. Article of the treaty states â€Å"The Community shall contribute to the flowering of the cultures of the Member States, while respecting their national and regional diversity and at the same time bringing the common cultural heritage to the fore†. Bozoki, 4) The article on the Cultural Policy further suggests that â€Å"Cultural policy is governed by the principle of subsidiarity, with Community action is to be taken only if the objective cannot be achieved sufficiently by member states alone. Thus EU-level cultural policy is limited to encouraging cooperation between member states, and, if necessary supporting and supplementing their action†. (Bozoki, 4) According to the article the Union should take into consideration cu ltural compatibility when it implements cultural policies. The European Cultural Policy had three aims. The first one of these was to improve the knowledge of the culture and history of the Europe and its people. The second aim was to conserve the European cultural heritage and the last aim was to support the cultural exchange and artistic creation. In order to achieve these aims three cultural programs have been implemented by the Union between 1996 and 1999. The first one of these programs was â€Å"Kaleidoscope†. The aim of the program was to encourage artistic creation and promote cultural awareness among the peoples of Europe in the areas of creative arts, performing arts, and applied arts by means of exchange and cultural cooperation. Kouveliotis, 5) The second program was â€Å"Ariane†. It aimed to promote knowledge of European literary works through the means of translation. The objective of the program was to create awareness in the member states regarding the current literary art together with the current drama. (Kouveliotis, 6) The third program that implemente d in the 1997- 2000 period was â€Å"Raphael†. The aim of the program was to encourage cooperation among the member countries of the Union in the area of cultural heritage. Kouveliotis, 8) The program aimed to bring the common cultural to the fore while respecting the national diversities. The European Capital of Culture was another program that adopted by the European Union. The main objective of the program was to highlight the diversity and richness of European cultures and to promote greater mutual acquaintance between European citizens. (Kouveliotis, 10) Under the program starting from 2005, each year a city would be chosen as the European capital of culture. The objectives of the program were to highlight the artistic movements and styles shared by Europeans, to promote events involving people active in culture from other cities in the member states of the Union, to ensure mobilization and participation of large sections of population, to encourage reception of citizens of the European Union and to reach as wide an audience as possible by employing multimedia and multilingual approach, to promote dialogue between European cultures and other cultures in the world, to exploit the historic heritage, urban architecture, and quality of the city. Kouveliotis, 10) In the year 2000, the Union adopted Culture 2000 program under which all the three programs were merged. The Culture 2000 program aims to promote creativity and disseminate culture through support Europe wide cooperation between cultural organizations, institutions within and outside of the Union (Kouveliotis, 12). Under the program three types of activities were defined to be support ed. These are innovative activities, experimental actions of multiannual cultural cooperation, and cultural events with European dimension. Kouveliotis, 12) In 2007, Culture 2007 program was implemented by the Union for the period of 2007- 2013. (Dewey, 99) The main aim of the program is to focus on the mobility of artists and art works in order to enhance cultural cooperation in the Union. Lithuanian Cultural Policy Lithuania is one of the countries that faced transition from Communism to liberal democracy. Like all other policies the cultural policy of the country was also affected by that change in the regime. During the Soviet period the cultural policy of the country were under the control of the Communist Party (Council of Europel/ERICarts 2). In other words, the cultural policy of the country was under an ideological influence and control. The Soviet cultural policy and its administration were under the lines of strict command of the party. The cultural events and institutions were used by the party to legitimize Communism. The privileges were offered to the artists. In this way the artists were attracted to the ruling circles and they were prevented to produce artifacts criticizing the regime (Council of Europel/ERICarts 2). As a result of such policy implementation, democratic forms of cultural self government cannot be established in Lithuania. Lithuania was one of the post-Soviet era East European countries that applied European Union for full membership. Like all other candidate countries, Lithuania had to take the necessary steps in order to fulfill the criteria defined by the Union in order to become a member of the Union. The Maastrich criteria, which Lithuania was expected to fulfill, consist of three criterions. The first one of these is the political according to which every candidate country should adopt rule of law, respect minority rights, and stable democratic institutions. Varbanova, 54) The second criterion is the economic one. Under this criterion a candidate country should adopt a well functioning market economy and should be able to compete in the European market. (Varbanova, 54) The third criterion is the adoption of â€Å"acquis communautaire† and the last criterion is to have the capacity to fulfill the membership obligations. As far as the cultural policy during the accession process is concerned , the candidate countries are required to complete a questionnaire on the economic and public sectors which includes ulture and audio visual policy. (Varbanova, 54) The questionnaire includes legislation for protecting cultural heritage, legislation in the field of broadcasting, the national system for the support of artistic activities, professional training, and arts education. (Varbanova, 54) In this respect, Lithuania benefited from the European financial support schemes provided to candidate countries under the Culture Program, Structural Funds, and European initiatives to advance cultural cooperation. With the end of the Communist regime in 1989, a new era in the Lithuanian politics has started. The country turned its face to Europe and started to implement the necessary measures to be a liberal democracy. This process also affected the Lithuanian cultural policy. In the year of 1991, the Lithuanian government has adopted a new program called â€Å"Market†, Democracy Freedom which set a new direction of the Lithuanian cultural policy as the program included a specific objective which was the development of a â€Å"Lithuanian Cultural Model†. Dufton, 15) This new cultural model aimed to bring freedom of expression, democratic process and an arms length approach, according to which the policy making and policy implementation in the area of culture would be separated from each other. In other words, the new program brought decentralization to the Lithuanian cultural policy. On the other hand, throughout the 1990s the decisions taken regarding the cultural policy in Lith uania cannot be taken appropriately due to the some problems faced by the country. The first problem the country faced regarding the cultural policy was the lack of money as a result of which the projects could not be implemented. The second problem was the lack of local government tradition. The third problem was the exclusion of some sectors of the population from cultural activities and the fourth problem was the contradictions in the legislation. (Dufton, 18) The cultural activities which were financed by the central and local government generally were spent on the existing cultural institutions such as theaters, cinemas, libraries etc. As the number of the audiences and the performances decreased the burden of financing the cultural activities started to rest with the government. (Dufton, 19) The decision making process regarding the cultural policy was at the hands of the high executives. As a result, most of the important channels were cut off from the process, leading to disintegration in cultural services. (Dufton, 19) As the problems in the above mentioned areas continued to exist, Lithuania passed a law, Law on the Amendment of the Law on Local Self-Government, for the decentralization of the cultural policy making and implementation. The law provided the local governments the legal and administrative capacities to implement cultural policy according to the needs of their communities. Another development in the decentralization of cultural policy came in 2002, when the Lithuanian government adopted the Cultural Development Program of the Regions, with the aim to form the administrative, financial, legal and information basis for the development of regional culture (Council of Europel/ERICarts 10). In 2002, Lithuania adopted a document called â€Å"State’s Long Term Development Strategy† defining the aims of the Lithuanian cultural policy as â€Å"to preserve and promote common European cultural values and national identity, to warrant its prolongation, openness and competitiveness in contemporary Lithuanian, European and the World cultural context†. (Council of Europel/ERICarts, 11) Furthermore, the new cultural policy aimed to guarantee participation in culture life of the Lithuanian society and consumption of culture. The cultural identity of the Lithuanian culture was defined as the use of national language, state protection of the ethnic culture, national heritage, and support national minorities living in Lithuania. (Council of Europel/ERICarts, 12) Moreover, the cultural policy aimed to improve the administrative system on national heritage protection, expand the democracy in cultural life, to set the basic principles for state’s support to art and artists, to stimulate regional cultural development and cooperation of tourism and cultural institutions, and to develop the information society and access to culture. Council of Europel/ERICarts, 12) In this respect it can rightly be argued that the cultural policy adopted by Lithuania was in line with the cultural policy objectives of the Union. It aimed to promote European values as a part of the Lithuanian culture, to promote cooperation with other states regarding the cultural programs, to increase the participation of the Lithuanian soc iety in cultural programs and to promote the Lithuanian culture in such a way that all the different elements of the Lithuanian society would be reflected. Current Issues in Lithuanian Cultural Policy National minorities and their place in the Lithuanian cultural policy are some of the current issues in the Lithuanian cultural policy. Lithuania has been one of the first Central and Eastern European counties which passed the Law on National Minorities. (Council of Europel/ERICarts, 13) Under this law the national minorities have the right to receive state support for fostering of their national culture. They have access to information and press in their native language and to establish cultural and educational organizations. Furthermore, the national minorities are given the right to organize cultural events in their native languages. Moreover, the minorities have the right to publish books and newspapers in their own languages. In addition to this, according of the Law of Education the educational institution should provide information on ethnic cultures into their curricula. (Council of Europel/ERICarts, 13) In 2004 the Lithuanian government passed the Program of Integration of National Minorities into Society for the years 2005-2010 with the objectives of integrating national minorities into Lithuanian cultural life, preservation of ethnic identities of minorities, and development of coherent relationships with the minorities. Council of Europel/ERICarts, 14). The state and the municipalities provide financial support for the cultural organizations and events of the national minorities. As it is mentioned above another main objective of the Lithuanian Cultural Policy is to promote openness of the Lithuanian national culture through promoting Lithuanian culture abroad and to familiarize the local population with the culture of other nations. The regions where the national minorities lived as majorities have adopted special cultural programs and education programs. Council of Europel/ERICarts, 14) In addition to integrate the national minorities into the culture of Lithuania, these programs also aim to bring regional economic development to these areas. As it is mentioned above, one of the aims of the Lithuanian cultural policy is to bring equal access to the culture to everyone in the culture life of the country. The programs adopted by the government such as The Regional Culture Development Program and the Support to Young Artists Program brought measures to increase the participation to regional cultural events and to integrate the young artists into the cultural market. Council of Europel/ERICarts, 14) Although the state remained as the main supported of the above mentioned cultural programs, the private sector started to emerge as an important supporter and initiator of cultural events in Lithuania. Private sector in cooperation with NGOs implemented many social cohesion acts such as the Open Air Museum of the Centre of Europe, which also was included into the Culture 2000 Project of the Union. (Council of Europel/ERICarts, 14) Artistic Parks in Nature: the Bridge for Teaching Contemporary Art in Schools was a project developed by the private sector and NGOs. It involved young people and professional artists from different countries. The project, Uzupio Respublika has been one of the important projects developed under the Lithuanian cultural policy. (Council of Europel/ERICarts, 14). It was started by a group of young artists in 1990s. It became an important place for the cultural organizations such as festivals. Publications of books and film productions also have taken their places in the Lithuanian Cultural Policy. Translation of foreign books into Lithuanian language has become one of the priorities according to the cultural policy of the country. As far as the film production is concerned, the state plays an important role in the financial support. After the accession to the European Union the film producers started to cooperate with companies from other countries. The cultural heritage and its protection is one of the important areas under the Lithuanian cultural policy. In 1994 with a law passed by the government, the Law on the Basic National Security of Lithuania, cultural heritage became a national security object. (Council of Europel/ERICarts, 17- 18) During the last years the government has taken several steps in the area. Training programs for the protection of national heritage were implemented with the fund provided by World Heritage Fund. The protection of the heritage was also decentralized as the local authorities were given more funds for the protection of heritage. However, the insufficient funding remains as an important problem in the protection of heritage. Conclusion Lithuania has adapted its cultural policy according to the cultural policy aims of the European Union. The country has taken the necessary measures to protect its national culture, including the culture of the national minorities. It has developed and implemented programs in order to familiarize its society with the different cultural elements that existed within Lithuania. The country also developed cultural programs to promote the Lithuanian culture abroad and cooperated with other countries in this regard. Moreover, the country has also promoted the idea of protection of national heritage and has taken the necessary steps, despite some financial problems the policy regarding heritage works well. In 2009 Lithuania involved in the European Capital of Culture Project with Vilnius. In this regard, it can rightly be stated that the Lithuanian cultural policy has affected by the ideas promoted by the European cultural policy in the sense that Lithuania promoted a democratic national cultural policy, embracing the European identity and promoting the Lithuanian one. As far as the other side of the coin, the European cultural policy is concerned, it can be suggested that the Union’s cultural policy is not affected by the Lithuanian cultural policy. But as it is the case with other member states, Lithuanian cultural policy contributes to the development of the European culture and identity. With the adopted projects Lithuanian culture is known in other member states of the European Union and the European identity gains another component; Lithuanian. In other words, the programs promoted by the Union which are adopted and implemented by Lithuania enrich the European culture and identity. Bibliography Bozoki, Andras. Cultural Policy and Politics at European Union. Retrieved 01. 05. 2009, from â€Å"137. 204. 115. 130/activities/download/Bozoki/Cultural%20Policy%20and%20Politics%20in%20the%20Eu † Council of Europe/ERICarts: Compendium of Cultural Policies and Trends in Europe. 10th edition 2008. ttp://www. culturalpolicies. net/web/index. php Dewey, Patricia (Summer 2008) â€Å"Transnational Cultural Policymaking in the European Union. † The Journal of Arts Management, Law, and Society. vol 38. 2 (Summer 2008): 99- 118. EBSCO. Suna Kirac Lib. Koc U. http://0web. ebscohost. com. libunix. ku. edu. tr. Dufton, Bill. (1998) â€Å"Cultural Policy in Lithuanina. † Council of Europe. Cultural Development Policies in Member States. Retrieved 02. 05. 2009, coe. int/t/dg4/cultureheritage/Source/Policies/Reviews/CC-CULT(97)24B_EN. pdf Kouveliotis, Kyriakos. â€Å"The Impact of EU’s Cultural