According to articles 2(5) and 6 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), culture forms part of the policy areas in which the EU shall have competence to carry out actions that ‘support, coordinate or supplement’ the actions of the member states, without superseding national competences. On the basis of article 167 TFEU, the EU has engaged for years in what should essentially be seen as supporting action in the realm of culture: by means of various funding tools, the EU has encouraged cultural cooperation between the member states through financial assistance offered to cultural projects, events and organizations. In accordance with article 167(4) TFEU, which provides for the integration of cultural considerations in EU action overall with a view to respecting and promoting cultural diversity, the EU has also sought to cope with the cultural implications of its various policies.
The European Commission’s Communication on a European agenda for culture in a globalizing world (COM (2007) 242)) opened a new chapter of cultural cooperation at the EU level, revitalizing the EU’s cultural policy. For the first time, the European institutions, the member states and civil society were invited to pool their efforts together on key strategic cultural policy goals. The Cultural Agenda also suggested new working methods, such as making use of the open method of coordination (OMC) in the field of culture. Endorsed by the Council, the cultural OMC was conceived as a flexible, non-binding and voluntary framework for structuring cooperation around the objectives of the Cultural Agenda and for fostering the exchange of best practices. The Council has also stressed its importance for analysis and policy advice aimed at feeding cultural policy-making.
Launched in 2008, the cultural OMC has aspired to promote policy dialogue, generating a number of recommendations for national and European policy-makers. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of the cultural OMC on national and EU policies. Has the cultural OMC exerted an influence on the formulation of member states’ cultural policies and if yes, in what ways? Moreover, has it served to inform EU cultural action, affecting the measures taken under the EU’s cultural and culture-related policies? Based on interviews held with cultural OMC participants, this paper engages in empirical analysis concerning the effects of the cultural OMC on national and EU policy development. In doing so, it adopts a thematic approach in line with the specific topics that the cultural OMC addressed through two distinct cycles (2008-2010; 2011-2014). The analysis seeks to offer insight into intergovernmental policy coordination in the case of a strictly demarcated EU policy domain on account of member states’ sensitivities, and to probe the dynamics that currently characterize the interrelationship of national cultural policies with the EU’s cultural policy on the one hand, and the EU’s cultural policy in the strict sense with culture-related action stemming from other EU policies on the other.
