Informal Meeting of Ministers for Culture and Audiovisual Affairs

’Making audiovisual resources accessible undoubtedly poses a huge challenge, but also an opportunity for a new Renaissance,’said Bogusław Zdrojewski, Minister of Culture and National Heritage, in his opening address. The minister stressed that digitalisation and bringing culture online can generate unprecedented benefits in the spheres of culture, economy, and science.

The first debate was opened by a presentation by Edwin Bendyk, journalist of the weekly Polityka, titled “Culture on the electronic frontier.” The presentation focused on the role of culture in stimulating economic growth. The author also talked of the need to make cultural policy relevant to the challenges of the digital era. The second discussion dealt with the issue of online distribution and availability of audiovisual content. The theme was introduced by professor Raquel Xalabarder-Plantada, who spoke about “Copyright in the digital era.” In her presentation, she outlined the issues connected with the relationship between digitalisation and copyright, with a special focus on audiovisual heritage. Elisabeth Niggenmann from Comité des Sages talked about the report New Renaissance published in January 2011.The report puts together key conclusions and recommendations concerning digitalisation. Some of them took the form of a legislative initiative of the European Commission, e.g. the draft directive on orphan works.

Androulla Vassiliou, Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism, Sport, Media and Youth and Michel Barnier, Commissioner for Internal Market and Services pointed to the fact that European cultural policy should focus on facilitating access to cultural resources, especially taking into account opportunities offered by the Internet.

German Culture Minister Barnd Neumann called all Member States to get involved in financing the project of Europeana, Europe’s public library. So far, even though they attract most attention among the users, Europeana’s film resources make up only 2 percent of its collection. The debate participants also noted the issues related to the distribution and availability of audiovisual content online. They also stressed the need to bring copyright in line with new forms of distribution and, at the same time, to take into account the interests of the artists.
Apart from Minister Zdrojewski, Commissioner Vassilioualso participated in the press conference organised after the main part of the meeting. At first, she stressed the excellent preparation of the congress and the entire cultural programme of the Polish Presidency. She also noted Wrocław’s advanced preparations for the role of European Culture Capital. ‘We see the presidency not as an opportunity for one Member State to take power, but rather to present itself as broadly as possible to other EU Member States. Poland is making the best of this role,’ stressed Vassiliou.  She also expressed her satisfaction with the debate, pointing out that the process of digitalisation will be financed on three levels: Member State contributions, EU activities, and public-private partnership.  ’We are extremely satisfied with the process of digitalisation in EU Member States,’ concluded Vassiliou and, at the same time, announced prompt implementation of another EU project, this time dedicated to small cinemas that would present only European films.

Referring to the issue of digitalisation, the Conference’s host, Minister Bogdan Zdrojewski mentioned over 3 million books and 129,000 films that circulate in the legal domain as orphan works, i.e. works whose rights owners cannot be identified.  ’Digitalisation is extremely important to us also as a method of combating exclusion in access to culture. Another one is the Muzykoteka programme, which has been brought back to primary school curriculum this September and is intended to prepare young people to experience music more fully.’