Debates

The Catalunya Europa Foundation presents a study on public cultural spending in the European Parliament



Pere Almeda, a political scientist and member of the executive board of the Catalunya Europa Foundation, presented the report "Public Spending on Culture in Europe 2007-2015", before the Committee on Culture and Education of the European Parliament, framed in the session " Structural and Financial Barriers in the Access to Culture ".

The report presents a comparison of public cultural spending in different European countries, and shows a decrease in the considerable cultural investment in the countries of the South, while this is maintained in the Nordic and central countries, a fact that generates an increase in the fissure cultural between north and south.

In the same session, Jill Cousins, executive director of the European Foundation, presented a study on the effects of copyright in Europe. According to Cousins, the duration of intellectual rights causes a black hole in the possibilities of access to the cultural heritage of those works that, still protected by copyright, are no longer reproduced.

On the other hand, Frédéric Meseeuw, advisor to the BOZAR center in Brussels, proposed the creation of a European scheme of guarantees for Museums, with the aim of reducing costs related to work insurance, which is usually represented between 20 and 40% of the total expenses.

Finally, Dick Mlenaar, a researcher at Erasmus University in Rotterdam, exposed the tax difficulties suffered by artists who carry out their activity in different European countries, which have to face excessive tax costs since, in practice, they end paying taxes both in the countries where they carry out their activity and in the countries where they have their residence.



Tags

Europe  Culture