Berlin conference for European cultural policy

Politics and business make up the core of the European Union's process of unification today. At the same time, culture has so far come up short. The draft of the European Union's Constitutional Convention illustrates this clearly: Culture is only accorded a subordinate role, often limited to the arts.

Comparable to the Economic Summit in Davos or the conferences on security policy in Munich, Europe's Culture Conference Berlin is about founding a European summit meeting of culture. The conference will establish a substantial dialogue between politics, business and culture at the highest levels. At Europe's Culture Conference Berlin the cultural dimension of political and business developments will be the focal point.

The European Union cannot do without the knowledge that culture provides for solving political and economic problems. The symptoms of our current crises - whether economic crises, technological changes or terrorism - are also rooted in cultural crises and must therefore be treated as cultural challenges. Cultural politics is, in this sense, a new form of crisis prevention. The conference will show that culture represents a fundamental strength of the European unification process.

In choosing Berlin, Europe's Culture Conference has a venue that is of central significance for European unification. Berlin was the centre of the world's political division and, since the fall of the Wall, symbolises the end of military confrontation and new chances for co-operation between east and west.

A working group made up of international representatives from business, politics and culture that emerged from the advisory body "Partner for Berlin" will be responsible for preparing the conference. Members of the Committee are Hedy d'Ancona, Jacques Delors, Timothy Garton Ash, Hans-Dietrich Genscher, Bronislaw Geremek, Meglena Kuneva, Andrei Plesu, Javier Solana, Richard von Weizsäcker.


November 26 - 27 2004