The World Federation of Amateur Orchestras supports the initiative from the European Music Council that culture must be a visible and central part of the new European Commision.
On 10 September, European Commission President-elect Ursula von der Leyen presented her new Commission, with a structure of 8 Vice Presidents who stand for the new work priorities of the Commission. At the heart of the work of the European Commission will be climate change, technology and demography that are transforming our societies and way of life.¨
The European Music Council (EMC) welcomes these set priorities and is convinced that culture and music have a big role to play. The EMC therefore asks to re-introduce the term culture in the title of the designated Commissioner Mariya Gabriel, that is currently missing in her title “Innovation and Youth”.
Culture is included in the Treaty of Lisbon (Art.167) and the “New European Agenda for Culture” adopted in May 2018 sets out the priorities for the coming years by building a stronger Europe through new initiatives for education, culture and youth. We therefore call upon the President of the European Commission to reinforce the role of culture for the development of the European Union by spelling out “culture” in the title of the Commissioner.
With the College, President-elect von der Leyen suggests an open and inclusive way of working – such a cooperative way is ideal to mainstream culture in all policy areas and the EMC calls on the European Commission to give room to culture in all its policy areas.
The EMC highly welcomes the words of the mission letter to Commissioner Gabriel that state “culture is about freedom of expression, identity and diversity”. With this in mind, we look forward to exchanging with the designated Commissioner on the role of culture, its policies and the EU funding programmes for culture.
#BringCultureBack
https://www.emc-imc.org/press-news/press-release/emc-press-release-spell-it-out-culture/
