Internet facilities are giving EU citizens opportunities to indirectly participate in decision making by expressing their ideas on the future of Europe. All these public forums come out just before the elections - for the European Parliament in June and the new European Commission President in 2010-, aiming at convincing us that our opinion matters.
tellBarroso.eu how the EU can improve our life. José Manuel Barroso, the current European Commission President has launched this web poll, funded by the European Parliament and initiated by the Centre for European Studies. Though Barroso is already pre-campaigning for another 5 years mandate in the Presidency, this is officially a non-partisan poll.
The question is simple: What can Europe do for you?
A rough analysis of the random sample of responses given so far allows some considerations on the relevance given to arts and culture in the EU project. Judging by citizen’s participation, these areas seem not to be of high priority, however they show up here and there.
I admit I was not brave enough to go through the 163 pages, so, my modest investigation is limited to the first 20. But I guess this is already an interesting viewpoint. Be aware that the various themes as well as their order are constantly changing following citizens feed-back in real time.
Culture is mentioned around the 4th page and arts approximately by the 15th page. Education is present in most of the pages thus seems to affect citizen’s daily lives a lot more. The same goes for the obvious themes such as: economy, work, environment, freedom of speech, mobility, immigration, democracy, human rights... Languages come up quite regularly too. I have found innovation around the 10th page and research by the 15th. I also saw peace, happiness and fun somewhere.
In what comes to references to culture, many come associated to maintenance of cultural heritage and diversity arguing against lose of national differences. Allusions to cultural exchange were found at the 18th page, but on my 2nd tour it is was no longer there.
Among the many enthusiasts of EU citizenship, freedoms and even Esperanto, I have noticed also few discordant voices. Some argue for defence of national or EU borders for the sake of cultural values but also jobs security and welfare reminding us that the EU project is not consensual.
Another appealing discussion, this time multilingual, is: European-citizens-consultations.eu. It results of a consortium of foundations, many active in the culture sector, and looks for citizen’s ideas for the economic and social future of Europe. There should be no hesitations that culture and the arts are “naturally” included here! So have your say!
Regardless of the effective impact of the final results of these polls, it is interesting to consider the participation of the sector in these more generic forums. In my opinion it seems to be modest though growing. It would be important that the arts and culture would increasingly show up everywhere, engaging in the political and consultation processes along other fields of society. Only by making its presence visible, can the sector affirm its potential role in the EU´s integration dream.
Thus, tellBarroso.eu how can arts and culture improve our life!
Tagged as:
citizens consultations, civil society, EU, EU culture policy, European Commission, European integration, European parliament
LabforCulture è un'iniziativa di partnership della Fondazione Culturale Europea. LabforCulture desidera ringraziare i propri finanziatori per il loro supporto.