Impact Study: UNESCO-Aschberg Programme for Artists and Cultural Professionals

Agreements, such as the Protocol on Cultural Cooperation attached to the Economic Partnership Agreement between the EU and CARIFORUM, have played an important role in driving the ratification process for the 2005 UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions. Today, the Convention counts 146 Parties, and is the only UNESCO Convention ratified by the EU. Thanks to this process, key concepts like the protection of cultural diversity, the participation of civil society and the integration of culture into sustainable development have been brought to the fore: they are now widely shared and underpin international cooperation in cultural matters. This process has also helped the EU clarify and defend culture’s potential. Key EU documents such as the Joint Communication “Towards an EU strategy for international cultural relations” and the “New Consensus on development” are fully alignedwith the Convention’s provisions and put its “spirit” into practice with new approaches, based on the principles of partnership, ownership and co-creation. Cultural cooperation must look further ahead: there remain challenges in the implementation of the Cultural Protocol, its new instruments and its ever- evolving circumstances. Amore strategic approach is needed, where challenges meet opportunities, and identified needs meet available resources. However, cooperation under the principles we share remains the way forward. Walter Zampieri Head of Cultural Policy Unit, Directorate General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture, European Commission

The PCC also provides for technical assistance through differentmeasures, such as training, the exchange of information and expertise, counselling in the elaboration of policies and legislation as well as in the usage and transfer of technologies and know-how. Article 6 of the PCC seeks to further promote the EU and the CARIFORUM as locations for shooting films and television programmes, in particular by allowing temporary importation of technical material and equipment necessary for shooting from one Party’s territory to another. In this sense, the PCC provides opportunities for collaboration in the broader domain of culture, as well as for some specific opportunities for cultural workers and artists to enter the EU in order to learn, to network or to receive technical assistance. It also provides for the preferential treatment of

22 Culture in the CARIFORUM-EU EPA