Eastern Partnership Culture Congress was held on 21-23 October 2011 in Lublin, Poland. Eastern Partnership Culture Congress is a long-term undertaking, where in order to establish Eastern Partnership as a cultural project, you need a new platform for idea exchange, for designing new tools supporting cooperation and establishing a common representative group at European level.
The Congress is a part of a wider project entitled “Eastern partnership as a cultural project”, which is run by Lublin City Office in cooperation with The Centre for Culture in Lublin and Foundation Trans Culture.
Congress objectives:
to establish a platform “cultures for changes” based on: congresses held every two years, think-tank and work group activity;
to issue publications, to organize summer schools and other partnership events,
to establish Eastern Partnership as a cultural project,
to develop a long-term cooperation with Eastern Partnership neighbouring countries: European Union, Russia, Turkey and many others,
to engage culture in social change,
to elaborate organization and financial tools for common ideas and arrangements.
EaP CSF Working group 4 "Contacts between people" address to the congress delegates letter with recommendations:
Among
others the following recommendations will be addressed to EU:
- To invite EU Delegations in the EaP countries and relevant European
Commission DGs to provide advise to EaP
governments on congruency of national cultural policy reforms with relevant EU
policies.
- To secure a regular exchange of reform experiences and updates on
recent progress made to establish a periodically
convening EaP Cultural Policy Reform Forum and involve civil society led
initiatives, government representatives dealing with cultural policy reforms,
representatives of all relevant inter-governmental institutions in the field
(European Commission, EU Delegations, Council of Europe, UNESCO, etc.)
- To encourage the Regional Monitoring and Capacity
Building Unit of the Eastern Partnership Culture Program in Kyiv to closely coordinate
its efforts and work plans with civil society based initiatives in the field of
culture in order to avoid duplication, repetition or pillarisation of efforts
serving common development/reform goals.
- To encourage RMCB Unit in Kyiv to monitor reform progress in
the EaP countries.
Recommendations
to EaP governments:
- To ratify and completely implement all relevant international
conventions in the field of cultural heritage.
- To implement fully the UNESCO Convention on the protection and promotion of the diversity of
cultural expressions (2005).
- To elaborate publicly roadmaps for cultural policy reforms to indicate
tangible goals and milestones to be achieved within a reasonable timeframe.
Close collaboration with local and international stakeholders should be
secured.
Download full letter
Official web page of the Congress
Cultural Congress on Facebook