FEVIS Chairman and former Minister of Culture in France, Jacques Toubon, speaks up at the occasion of the Avignon forum 2013. The following quotes sum up his intervention that you may find in French here.
“We need to act. There is a need for a European policy for Culture, which implies to modify the corresponding treaties. Culture should be in the scope of European policies shared among Member States. The Germans, who used to be against this idea, are now thinking about it. The SPD, and even the CDU are considering it.”
“Although the cultural sector has never as profitable as it is today, European artists are the only ones who have not benefited from it. Europe has become the top market for American digital services and Asian devices, taking advantage of our creative work”.
“Very soon, 30% of our economy will be related to virtual services coming from elsewhere, and culture will be distributed by digital platforms from the USA. There will soon be no funding available for Culture in Europe, or for anything else as a matter of fact”.
“We need a European Minister for Culture, resembling Jeff Bezos or Larry Page, to save us. This forum should allow its participants to come to such recommendations, in order to encourage other goverments to act. If not, the European problem will no longer be the lack of culture, but the lack of money, period”.
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