Raising the stakes …

I was pleasantly surprised to see a wink towards culture in the latest series of budgets and counter-budgets at this early stage  in the campaign towards Swedish national elections 2010. A special focus was given to international and intercultural investment. The media missed it.

It began with the recently launched Proposition on Culture, presented by the current government as a political reaction to an earlier commissioned national survey on culture. The more radical and confused elements of the national survey have been put aside. The Minister for Culture Lena Adelsohn Liljeroth offers a clear position on intercultural action, without proposing any extra resources. Instead, her budget refers to the present experiment - about 1 (one) million Euros annually for three years - and underlines the need for further analysis. This money runs out in 2010. Intercult is one of the organisations following defined international missions in return for this fragile subsidy.

The opposition - composed of social democrats, left democrats and the green party - offer a shadow budget including 2 (two) million Euros a year for three years, earmarked for intercultural action. A 100% increase. Maybe we should be content that the issue is even on the table. Maybe we should applaud and vote.

I am hoping - probably in vain - that increased investment in international exchange, as proposed by the opposition, might raise the stakes. Can Lena Liljeroth and her team offer other solutions? Which political narrative best incorporates a modern and progressive approach to interculture? Which alliance is willing to see cultural initiatives that cross borders as primary research and development for the European project? Which political alternative opens our perspectives internationally?

It seems like a good litmus test for the sustainability of any future Swedish government, living as we do in an immensely transnational environment.

EU Culture Forum/Brussels, 29-30 sept

A week ago some 950 people representing the cultural sector gathered in Brussels for the second EU Culture Forum, called by the DG Education and Culture. It was a huge event, taking place at Flagey, the newly launched European House of Culture. A great place for such gatherings, with a number of meeting rooms, screening rooms and a huge concert/plenary room with space for everyone.

The objective was to carry forward the EU Agenda for Culture which was launched already 2007. A kind of station along the way to evaluate how things move forward. As a political event it surely filled its purpose. Member States sent delegations, cultural operators and advocacy organisations mobilized (like Culture Action Europe, the primary network for European cultural policy in the civil sector) and the discussions were lively during the coffee breaks, lunches Flash Info sessions organised as a kind of Agora in the framework of the Forum.

I was present as "grand rapporteur" for one of three themes: intercultural dialogue.

Unfortunately the messages sent by our political leaders were rather weak. Commissioner Jan Figel - who practically the same day left his position while the new Commissioner for Culture and Education has not yet been decided - was present. He said the obligatory words and referred to developments during his period as Commissioner. European Parliamentary leaders Hans-Gert Pöttering and Doris Pack underlined Culture as a necessary area for EU engagement and focused mostly on the instrumental aspects: intercultural dialogue, security, external relations etc. But the words seemed pretty much like fast flying birds - they flew past us with too little substance and no promises of increased resources. Business as usual.

What is most frustrating is that there doesn't seem to be any sincerely engaged EU parliamentarians who see themselves as cultural politicians. The same is true in most EU Member States, Sweden included. Where is that combination of competence and engagement that can make the cultural factor a serious pat of any political vision?

I did not once hear a reference to migration as a major factor in the transformation of our cultural landscape. The diversity of the European urban centers was not dealt with directly. This is either naïve or an intentional avoidance of a potentially uncomfortable theme. Europe is enriched by the diversity of its citizens, including those who were not born here. Concrete preventative action must be taken to reduce the tensions caused by the flow of peoples. Cultural action is essential in this work.

As a colleague from Culture Action Europe put it: “It is time to put our money where our hearts are …”.

The European project, as imagined in its most complementary and constructive form, has been stumbling for far too long. Without serious engagement in cultural action - as a sustainable alternative to introversion, populism and even military action – there will be no European project.

Less than ½ of one percent of the total EU budget towards Culture is not enough to do this job.

In 2009 and far beyond, we need to incite the innovative capacity of an entire continent, facing challenges we don’t even know yet exist and can hardly imagine. It is, in fact, time to put our money where our hearts are. And our hearts back into our work.