Informal Meeting of senior officials of Ministries of Culture and senior officials responsible for culture in Ministries of Foreign Affairs

 22-24 June 2011, Pécs, Hungary

 
Outline of Péter Inkei’s statement

Starting from the end: from defining the success of external actions. What is the desired image, an improved brand of Europe?

Hungarian presidency slogan: strong Europe… carefully, at least not a weak continent. Attractive, impressive, friendly. Champion / bastion / model for values: human rights, tolerance etc.

Full range of actions includes trade promotion (cultural industries) and opportunity brokering (concert / exhibition coupled with high level visit).

Valued high: sustainable connections. Live partnership and collaborations, personal attachment, getting and staying connected.

Reality: EU-level relations are insignificant in numbers as compared to bilateral activity. Within latter, still plenty of mid-20th century basic prototypes of self-contained actions: one country sends, one country receives one time project (exhibition, concert, cultural season etc.), prepared by one ministry. In some countries considered rare, archaic, in others still majority.

They will never disappear. Simple to organise, one institution to credit, one kind of aim, satisfaction and fun are not divided.

Other end of the scale: more than one ministry, involving non-governmental partners, eventually municipal / regional participation, more than one member state (possibly under Eunic), focusing on local needs, connections and sustainability.

Such actions should be distinguished / acknowledged as European feature, later even standard.