18/09/2006

Cultural diversity: Solo or group for European countries? The process of adopting legislative instruments for the ratification of "Cultural Diversity" by UNESCO members is following its course. To date, seven countries have officially adopted it: Canada is first, followed by Mauritius, Mexico, Romania, Monaco, Bolivia and Djibouti. Ten others are expected to sign shortly: Togo, Peru, Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Croatia, Finland, France and Austria.

In Belgium, the French-speaking community published a parliamentary decree in August but other levels of government (the regions) must first adopt it before the federal government can do so officially. For Henri Benkoski, an expert for the Belgian government, "the fact that two major border countries of the US – who continue their sabotage through bilateral agreements – have ratified the agreement so quickly is of high symbolic value”.

Among the EU member states, a debate on strategy is underway on whether member states should be allowed to submit their ratifications one by one ("solo") to UNESCO or officially present the 25 ratifications as a group.

For those in favour of "25 together", what is most important is to show a certain level of European cohesion as well as to reach a clear and significant agreement within the international audiovisual landscape, from a political perspective, on approximately 80 ratifications.

Those in favour of the "solo" option state that if the countries wait to gather all 25 European signatures, there is a risk of not being among the first 30, and therefore not in the first General Assembly, which would be symbolically devastating for the image of a Europe that has firmly fought for this cultural diversity. For them, the current ratification by over 20 countries to date is positive, as it hastens the definitive adoption of the measures.

The upcoming European Council of Ministers in charge of the audiovisual industry will examine which strategy to adopt at the end of November.

(Translated from French)