Annexes to COM(2010)183 - Green Paper - Unlocking the potential of cultural and creative industries - Main contents
Please note
This page contains a limited version of this dossier in the EU Monitor.
| dossier | COM(2010)183 - Green Paper - Unlocking the potential of cultural and creative industries. |
|---|---|
| document | COM(2010)183  |
| date | April 27, 2010 |
QUESTION
- Which tools should be foreseen or reinforced at EU level to promote cooperation, exchanges and trade between the EU CCIs and third countries?
5. TOWARDS A CREATIVE ECONOMY: THE SPILLOVERS OF THE CCIS
Reports published in several European countries show that CCIs play a greater role in national and regional innovation systems than has previously been recognised by policymakers[53].
First, these industries provide content to fuel digital devices and networks and so contribute to the acceptance and further development of ICTs, for instance to broadband rollout. As intensive users of technology, their demands also often spur adaptations and new developments of technology, providing innovation impulses to technology producers.
Second, through their specific role at the core of the digital shift and the new trend towards the "experience economy" as well as through their ability to shape or amplify social and cultural trends, and – therefore – consumer demand, CCIs play an important role in contributing to an innovation-friendly climate in Europe.
Third, it appears that firms that make proportionately greater use of services from the CCIs perform significantly better on innovation. Although the specific mechanisms by which this occurs are not yet well documented, it seems that creative innovation services provided by CCIs are inputs to innovative activities by other enterprises and organisations in the broader economy, thereby helping to address behavioural failures, such as risk aversion, status quo bias and myopia. Design is a good example of a creative process potentially leading to user-centred innovation[54].
Furthermore, reports also show that creative workers are more integrated in the wider economy than was previously thought: there are more creative specialists that have been trained in arts schools working outside the CCIs than within, acting as "conduits for knowledge, innovation and new ideas" initiated in the CCIs.
On a more general note, first-class cultural amenities and high-tech services, good living and recreational conditions, the vibrancy of cultural communities and the strength of local CCIs are increasingly seen by cities and regions as soft location factors that can help them boost their economic competitiveness by establishing a positive environment for innovation and attracting highly-skilled people as well as companies.
At the same time, the cultural sector and CCIs can make a fundamental contribution to responding to major challenges such as the fight against global warming and transition to a green economy and a new sustainable model of development. Art and culture have a unique capacity to create green jobs, to raise awareness, challenge social habits and promote behavioural shifts in our societies, including our general attitude to nature. They can also open new avenues to tackle the international dimension of such issues.To respond to these challenges, various levels of governance must design the right environments for creativity strategies to be developed. At the same time, reflections should be pursued with respect to evaluating a creative environment to complement more traditional innovation indicators. The key question here is how to accelerate the positive spill-over effects that culture and CCIs can produce on the wider economy and society.
One way of doing that is to maximise the links between culture and education so as to promote creativity in a life-long perspective. The main assumption here is that creativity is not exclusively an innate gift. Everyone is creative in some way or another, and can learn to use his/her creative potential. In our complex and rapidly-changing world, we should therefore strive to foster creative, entrepreneurial and intercultural skills that will help us better respond to new economic and social challenges[55].
Quality cultural and art education has an important role to play in this regard, as it has the potential to reinforce imagination, originality, concentration, interpersonal skills, taste for exploration, critical and nonverbal thinking, etc. among learners[56]. Against this background, synergies between culture and education should be further explored. The principle in this area should be "joint responsibility" from the education and cultural sectors, and systematic and sustainable partnerships between both sides should therefore be sought for[57].
Media literacy education is also a very important way to promote citizens' creativity and participation in the cultural life of society. Today, the media are a very important means of distribution of cultural content and a vector for European cultural identities, and the ability of European citizens to make informed and diversified choices in their role as consumers of media content should be encouraged.
On a macro economic level, the links between CCIs and other industries should be strengthened for the benefit of the economy at large. In this respect, it would be interesting to better understand how to foster the use of creativity in other industries, the type of creativity which enterprises are looking for as well as the right mechanisms to facilitate such interactions.
For effective links to be made between the CCIs and fields such as education, industry, research or administration, real "creative partnerships" should be built and effective mechanisms for transferring creative knowledge such as design into other sectors should be implemented. Innovation voucher schemes such as the "Creative Credit" that helps business to develop their ideas by teaming up with CCIs seem very promising in this respect[58].
In this context, innovation support mechanisms to benefit CCIs not only allow CCIs to innovate better and more, but they also enable them to provide more innovative solutions to other sectors or industries, and therefore help Europe’s overall economy to unleash its full innovation potential. Furthermore, intermediary institutions have an essential role to play in acting as an interface between worlds which are only starting to know each other, helping to build trust and understanding of objectives and expectations, and developing or fine-tuning working methods[59].
QUESTIONS
- How to accelerate the spill-over effects of CCIs on other industries and society at large? How can effective mechanisms for such knowledge diffusion be developed and implemented?
- How can "creative partnerships" be promoted between CCIs and education institutions / businesses / administrations?
- How to support the better use of existing intermediaries and the development of a variety of intermediaries acting as an interface between artistic and creative communities and CCIs on the one hand, and education institutions / businesses and administrations, on the other hand?
Call for comments
The Commission invites all interested parties to comment on the questions and/or substance set out in this Green Paper. Answers and comments, which may cover all or only a limited number of the above issues, should reach the following address by 30 July 2010:
European Commission
DG Education and Culture
Green Paper on cultural and creative industries
MADO 17/76
B-1049 Brussels
Or by email to:
EAC-Creative-Europe@ec.europa.eu
If stakeholders wish to submit confidential responses, they should indicate clearly which part of their submission is confidential and should not be published on the Commission's website. All other submissions, not clearly marked as confidential, may be published by the Commission.
Organisations are invited to register in the Commission register for Interest Representatives (http://ec.europa.eu/transparency/regrin). This register was set up in the framework of the European Transparency Initiative with a view to provide the Commission and the public at large with information about the objectives, funding and structures of interest representatives.
[1] As expressed by President Barroso in his Political Guidelines for the next Commission. Full text: http://ec.europa.eu/commission_barroso/president/pdf/press_20090903_EN.pdf.
[2] See Communication from the Commission "Europe 2020: A strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth" - COM(2010) 2020.
[3] More particularly, cultural and creative industries are recognized as growth sectors in the abovementioned Commission Consultation Paper as well as in the Commission Staff Working Document "Challenges for EU support to innovation services – Fostering new markets and jobs through innovation" - SEC(2009) 1195.
[4] Study on the economy of culture in Europe, conducted by KEA for the European Commission, 2006, abovementioned Commission Staff Working Document on challenges for EU support to innovation and UNCTAD (2008) report on "Creative Economy – the Challenge of Assessing the Creative Economy – towards informed policy-making".
[5] More information on this sector, and especially harmonised statistics, are needed to better monitor the situation of CCIs and allow for analyses of the current situation, trends, difficulties and challenges.
[6] The European Commission adopted in September 2007 a Communication presenting a long term e-skills agenda: "e-Skills for the 21st Century: Fostering Competitiveness, Growth and Jobs" - COM(2007) 496 - and is currently considering to develop it further.
[7] See study on the impact of culture on creativity, conducted by KEA for the European Commission, 2009.
[8] In particular the USA or Canada.
[9] See Commission Communication on a European Agenda for Culture in a globalising world - COM(2007) 242.
[10] Council Conclusions on the contribution of the cultural and creative sectors to the achievement of the Lisbon objectives, 2007: http://www.consilium.europa.eu/ueDocs/cms_Data/docs/pressData/en/educ/94291.pdf.
[11] Council Conclusions on culture as a catalyst for creativity and innovation, 2009: http://ec.europa.eu/culture/our-policy-development/doc/CONS_NATIVE_CS_2009_08749_1_EN.pdf.
[12] European Parliament Resolution of 10 April 2008 on cultural industries in the context of the Lisbon strategy: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=TA&reference=P6-TA-2008-0123&language=EN&ring=A6-2008-0063.
[13] For reports of these groupings, see: http://ec.europa.eu/culture/our-policy-development/doc2240_en.htm. Good practices identified by these groupings are mentioned in footnotes in various parts of the document.
[14] In particular: A Creative Economy Green Paper for the Nordic Region (Nordic Council, 2007), Creative Britain – New Talents for the New Economy (UK, 2008), Creative Value – Culture and Economy Policy Paper (Netherlands, 2009) and Potential of Creative Industries in Estonia (2009).
[15] See in particular Manifesto of the Ambassadors of the 2009 European Year of Creativity and Innovation, released in November 2009. http://www.create2009.europa.eu/ambassadors.html.
[16] An ESSnet-culture has been set up in 2009 under the auspices of Eurostat. http://ec.europa.eu/culture/our-policy-development/doc1577_en.htm.
[17] See: http://portal.unesco.org/culture/en/ev.php-URL_ID=33232&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html.
[18] This is, for example, clearly the case in the music sector where the revenue of digital sales does not yet generate significant remuneration for performers; on the contrary, in the video games industry, the online model seems to better remunerate developers in the absence of any other intermediary.
[19] See in particular Commission Staff Working Document "The challenges for European standardisation", October 2004.
[20] The actions should build upon the discussions of the expert workshop "Towards a Pan-European initiative in support of innovative creative industries in Europe" that was held in Amsterdam on 4-5 February 2010. More information is available at http://www.europe-innova.eu/creative-industries.
[21] Commission Communication "Copyright in the knowledge economy" - COM(2009) 532; Consultation Paper "Creative content in a European digital single market: Challenges for the future", A Reflection Document of DG INFSO and DG MARKT, 2009.
[22] See in particular "Policy guidelines of the civil society platform on access to culture", 2009.
[23] See in particular some good practices identified by the national experts working group and the civil society platform on CCIs.
[24] In this respect, it is worth mentioning that pilot projects on new approaches on how to better support innovative creative industries companies are currently being implemented under European Knowledge Intensive Service Innovation Platform of the Europe INNOVA initiative funded by the EU Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme.
[25] See "The economy of culture", op.cit.
[26] The national experts working group on CCIs has identified good clustering practices in many Member States, such as Ireland, the UK, Spain, Estonia, Finland or Denmark, etc.
[27] See the Amsterdam Declaration, adopted by the participants of the workshop "Towards a Pan-European initiative in support of creative industries in Europe", February 2010: http://www.europe-innova.eu/web/guest/home/-/journal_content/56/10136/178407.
[28] See good practices identified by the national experts working group on CCIs.
[29] Communication "New skills for new jobs: Anticipating and matching labour market and skills needs", European Commission - COM(2008) 868.
[30] See in particular, the mini-study carried out for the European Commission on the "Access to finance activities of the European Creative Industry Alliance", Jenny Tooth, 2010, available at www.europe-innova.eu/creative-industries.
[31] See preliminary documents produced in the framework of the study on the entrepreneurial dimension of cultural and creative industries, carried out for the European Commission by the Utrecht School of the Arts, 2010, at http://cci.hku.nl/.
[32] Jenny Tooth, op.cit.
[33] See interesting examples identified by the national experts working group and the civil society platform on CCIs.
[34] See in particular Jenny Tooth, op. cit., as well as documents produced in the frame of the study on the entrepreneurial dimension of CCIs (op. cit.) highlighting the need for venture capital for innovative cultural and creative SMEs within the single market. See also good practices identified by national experts working group on CCIs.
[35] Crowdfunding sites help gathering small-scale investors, for example for independent film financing (e.g. indiegogo.com).
[36] The fund will share the financial risk related to the loans granted by banks to European independent audiovisual producers, by guaranteeing to cover a certain percentage of the loss in case of failure by the producer to reimburse the loan, thus encouraging local banks to grant credits to film producers.
[37] For the programming period 2007-2013, planned EU expenditure for culture amounts to around EUR 6 billion representing 1.7% of the total budget.
[38] EU Cohesion Policy – the Thematic Pages: http: //ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/themes/index_en.htm.
[39] See good practices identified by the national experts working group on CCIs.
[40] Creative and Culture Industries, Priority Sector Report (draft version), European Cluster Observatory, 2010.
[41] Study carried out for the European Commission on the contribution of culture to local and regional economic development as part of the EU cohesion policy.
[42] Sixth Progress report on economic and social cohesion - COM(2009) 295.
[43] See in particular the study carried out by Ericarts for the European Commission on "Mobility matters: Programmes and schemes to support the mobility of artists and cultural professionals", 2008.
[44] See feasibility study carried out by McCoshan et al for the European Commission on "Information systems to support the mobility of artists and other professionals in the culture field", 2009.
[45] A national expert group on artists' mobility set up as part of the implementation of the European Agenda for Culture is working on a number of these issues while restrictions to market access and mobility of artists and cultural practitioners should have been addressed by Member States in the context of the implementation of Directive 2006/123/EC on the internal market for services.
[46] A national expert working group is working on the mobility of museum collections in the framework of the European Agenda for Culture.
[47] See Article 2 of the Convention, Principle 7.
[48] See Article 2 of the Convention, Principle 8.
[49] As many other partners in the World Trade Organisation, the EU and its Member States, when joining the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), have preserved their capacity to define and implement policies for the purpose of preserving cultural diversity by notifying exemptions from the application of the Most Favoured Nation rule in accordance with Article II of the GATS and by consistently refraining from making specific commitments on market access and national treatment in cultural services, in particular in the audiovisual sector.
[50] Such as the ones supported in the MEDIA International preparatory action (2008-2010) and MEDIA Mundus (2011-2013).
[51] As highlighted by the platform on the potential of cultural and creative industries.
[52] See good practices identified by the national experts working group on CCIs.
[53] See in particular Bakhshi, H., McVittie, E. and Simmie, J., Creating Innovation. Do the creative industries support innovation in the wider economy? 2008; Pott, J. and Morrison, K., Nudging Innovation, 2008, consideration of the NESTA Innovation Vouchers Pilot, 2008; The role of creative industries in industrial innovation, Müller, K., Rammer, C. and Trüby, J., 2008.
[54] Commission Staff Working Paper "Design as a driver of user-centred innovation" - SEC(2009) 501.
[55] The new strategic framework for European cooperation in education and training ("ET 2020") adopted by the Council in May 2009 clearly takes on this challenge in highlighting the need to enhance creativity and innovation, including entrepreneurship, at all levels of education and training.
[56] See good practices identified by the national experts working group on synergies between culture and education.
[57] See good practices identified by the national experts working group on synergies between culture and education.
[58] http://www.creative-credits.org.uk/ by NESTA, UK
[59] See in particular study carried out by Tillt (Sweden), Disonancias (Spain) and WZB - Social Science Research Center Berlin (Germany) as part of the work of the Policy Grouping Tillt Europe, funded under the Culture Programme Culture:http://creativeclash.squarespace.com/storage/ComparativeAnalysis%20TILLT%20EUROPE.pdf.