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ACP | EP resolution | 12 Sep 2013 on promoting the European cultural and creative sectors as sources of economic growth and jobs

Friday 20 September 2013

European Parliament resolution of 12 September 2013 on promoting the European cultural and creative sectors as sources of economic growth and jobs (2012/2302(INI))

The European Parliament,

–  having regard to Article 167 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,

–  having regard to the Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions (Unesco Convention on the Protection of Cultural Diversity), adopted by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) on 20 October 2005,

–  having regard to Council Decision No 2006/515/EC of 18 May 2006 on the conclusion of the Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions(1) ,

–  having regard to the Council conclusions of 13 and 14 November 2006 and 24 and 25 May 2007(2) , in particular as regards the contribution of the cultural and creative sectors to the achievement of the Lisbon objectives, and to the Council resolution of 16 November 2007 on a European agenda for culture(3) ,

–  having regard to Decision No 1855/2006/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 December 2006 establishing the Culture Programme (2007 to 2013)(4) ,

–  having regard to Decision No 1718/2006/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 November 2006 concerning the implementation of a programme of support for the European audiovisual sector (MEDIA 2007)(5) ,

–  having regard to its resolution of 10 April 2008 on a European agenda for culture in a globalising world(6) ,

–  having regard to its resolution of 7 June 2007 on the social status of artists(7) ,

–  having regard to its resolution of 10 April 2008 on cultural industries in Europe(8) ,

–  having regard to the Council conclusions of 12 May 2009 on culture as a catalyst for creativity and innovation(9) ,

–  having regard to the Commission communication of 19 October 2009 entitled ‘Copyright in the Knowledge Economy’ (COM(2009)0532),

–  having regard to the Commission communication of 3 March 2010 entitled ‘Europe 2020: A strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth’ (COM(2010)2020),

–  having regard to the Commission Green Paper of 27 April 2010 entitled ‘Unlocking the potential of cultural and creative industries’ (COM(2010)0183),

–  having regard to the communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions of 30 June 2010 entitled ‘Europe, the world's No 1 tourist destination – a new political framework for tourism in Europe’ (COM(2010)0352),

–  having regard to its resolution of 12 May 2011 on the cultural dimensions of the EU's external actions(10) ,

–  having regard to its resolution of 12 May 2011 on unlocking the potential of cultural and creative industries(11) ,

–  having regard to the Council conclusions of 10 December 2012 on the ‘Industrial Policy Communication update: A Stronger European Industry for Growth and Economic Recovery’(12) ,

–  having regard to the Commission communication of 18 December 2012 on content in the Digital Single Market (COM(2012)0789),

–  having regard to the Commission Staff Working Document of 26 September 2012 entitled ‘Competitiveness of the European high-end industries’ (SWD(2012)0286),

–  having regard to the communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions of 26 September 2012 entitled ‘Promoting cultural and creative sectors for growth and jobs in the EU’ (COM(2012)0537),

–  having regard to the opinion of the Committee of the Regions of 30 May 2013(13) ,

–  having regard to Rule 48 of its Rules of Procedure,

–  having regard to the report of the Committee on Culture and Education and the opinion of the Committee on Regional Development (A7-0248/2013),

A.  whereas the cultural and creative sectors (CCS), by promoting the spread of innovation in other sectors, play a major role in the Union's economic and social development (in the former case especially with regard to SMEs), and are an integral part of the Europe 2020 strategy for a smart, sustainable and inclusive economy;

B.  whereas the CCS make a significant contribution to promoting social cohesion, creativity and cultural and linguistic diversity in the Union;

C.  whereas the cultural sector is the one to have least felt the impact of the economic crisis, showing itself to be a strategic area for the development of society;

D.  whereas the CCS should be recognised both for their intrinsic cultural value and for their major contribution to public wellbeing, to social integration and cohesion and to the Union economy in terms of growth and jobs, as well as for their beneficial effect on tourism;

E.  whereas European cultural and creative production has a major economic impact in numerous sectors, such as tourism, retail, digital technologies, etc;

F.  whereas the CCS include a wide variety of creative activities and services having their own particular features in terms of financing and development models; whereas it is important, therefore, to take account of this diversity in developing strategies for support or cooperation, including international cooperation;

G.  whereas festivals in Europe provide an opportunity to promote European cultural production and create cultural, social, economic and tourism value at territorial level;

H.  whereas the cultural and creative sectors are chiefly made up of SMEs, which form the backbone of the Union economy;

I.  whereas in its working document of 26 September 2012(14) the Commission recognised the importance of the high-end cultural and creative economic sector (fashion, jewellery, watches, perfumes and cosmetics, accessories, leather goods, furniture and furnishings, household equipment, gastronomy, wines and spirits, cars, boats, hotels and leisure experience, retail and auction houses and publishing), and whereas high-end companies can act as a driving force for all the CCS;

J.  whereas the consolidation of workers' status in the CCS contributes to the structuring, viability and credibility of economic activity and the consolidation of employment;

K.  whereas mobility is an important feature of the CCS, but nonetheless encounters numerous obstacles, which vary between countries and regions and are related to difficulties in obtaining visas, lack of status for artists and the specific and varied conditions of artistic production;

L.  whereas the current pilot project on ‘Economy of cultural diversity’ should provide an overview of challenges and solutions for the CCS;

M.  whereas EU citizens need to be provided with a cultural and artistic education from an early age so as to develop their own understanding of arts and culture, make their voice heard and develop awareness of the great diversity of cultures present in Europe, and thereby promote their own creativity and expression, as well as cultural diversity;

N.  whereas cooperation between training organisations and CCS companies should be strengthened in order to take account of changes in employment and the need for specific skills, thus promoting the exchange of information and the creation of mixed skills;

O.  whereas the cultural and creative sectors are manifestly richer and more diverse in Europe than in other parts of the world, and these sectors should be used to foster growth;

P.  whereas the transition to the digital era represents an opportunity for the CCS, since new requirements and services will appear, which will lead to the development of new economic models;

Q.  whereas the development of new economic models for online access to cultural works is booming and should be encouraged by a stable legal framework which promotes investment in the CCS;

R.  whereas it is essential to provide the CCS with access to financing methods which are stable and adapted to their needs in order to ensure their future development;

S.  whereas the CCS are an important element in local and regional territorial development strategies for achieving the objectives of social cohesion and economic expansion;

Conditions required for the development of the cultural and creative sectors

1.  Notes that the CCS are performing well economically, making a major contribution to social cohesion and continuing to create jobs, particularly for young people, as well as releasing considerable innovation potential in spite of the difficulties currently facing economies regarding the Union's budget discipline requirements;

2.  Stresses the need for up-to-date and reliable statistics on the CCS, in particular as regards their actual situation, their specific features, including in terms of status, their potential in terms of creating jobs and growth and their economic impact on other sectors, so as to enable decisions on the most appropriate political action to promote these sectors effectively; recommends setting up an observatory or database on the CCS;

3.  Asks the Commission to continue to develop studies and collect data on the economic and social role of the CCS, in particular as the overriding element across various economic sectors;

4.  Is disappointed that the action proposed by the Commission in its communication on the CCS(15) is limited in both its time-horizon and its scope; stresses the need to take a longer-term view of the prospects for these sectors and to draw up a programme of structured and concrete measures so as to align with the Europe 2020 strategy; points out that support for cultural creation from the Union, the Member States and local authorities is vital;

5.  Calls on the Commission to bring together, on the basis of the existing platform on the potential of the cultural and creative industries, an expanded forum of stakeholders in these sectors, to develop specific solutions and thereby assume an active role in establishing a structured medium- and long-term political programme;

6.  Calls on the Commission and the Member States to insist on the pivotal role of the CCS in innovation, with a view to creating cross-sectoral linkages, producing agglomeration and cluster effects and providing new opportunities for investment and employment;

7.  Notes that innovation-driven research should be supported with a view to expanding into new markets by offering innovative, creative products;

8.  Considers supporting and fostering the development of synergies with other sectors to be crucial for boosting economic growth; emphasises in this connection the role played in wealth creation by cultural tourism, in the form of familiarisation with our cultural heritage and attendance at cultural events such as festivals, as well as travel related to language learning;

9.  Emphasises the very diverse nature of the cultural and creative ecosystems, and stresses the need to address this by promoting the emergence of a common identity through the encouragement of joint productions as well as the creation of areas of common dialogue and exchange between the various actors within the CCS, in order to create new links between actors and to enable skills and knowledge to be transferred to and from other branches of the economy; stresses the fact that these initiatives should allow their common interests to emerge while taking into account cultural diversity, which should be recognised for its richness, inspiring strength and development potential that, as a whole, help give rise to a common European identity;

10.  Stresses the importance of promoting mutual knowledge and transfer of the skills and knowledge essential to collaboration between creative enterprises, through competitiveness clusters, excellence initiatives and networking, thereby creating a common culture for the CCS and encouraging the various sectors to work together in order to cope with the new economic and societal challenges more effectively;

11.  Calls for a territorial basis to be developed, for skills to be shared across sectors by creating clusters, and for exchanges to be optimised so as to attract investors in order to enable the various cultural and creative enterprises (VSBs, SMEs, NGOs and cultural institutions) to continue to promote growth and create jobs;

12.  Points out that the majority of companies in the CCS are small and medium-sized enterprises, and stresses, therefore, the need for them to be given particular support in this context;

13.  Urges the EU and the Member States to promote and recognise the visibility of the CCS, which make up Europe's ‘cultural exception’;

14.  Draws attention to the diversity of rules on the CCS and recommends that measures be implemented to harmonise rules and practices in the Union;

Working conditions for professionals in the cultural and creative sectors

15.  Points out that professionals in the CCS must be guaranteed a social status so that they are able to enjoy satisfactory working conditions and appropriate measures with regard to tax systems, their right to work, social security rights and copyright, in order to improve their mobility across the EU;

16.  Calls for consideration to be given to measures for the fair funding and remuneration of independent artists; stresses, furthermore, the need to improve coordination between the different European social security systems for such artists taking into account their highly mobile nature;

17.  Calls on the Member States to adapt social security schemes to the worlds of creative work, particularly in the digital sector, taking appropriate account of the fact that people in creative jobs often have to alternate between employed and self-employed status or do both types of work simultaneously;

18.  Calls on the Commission and the Member States to enable CCS workers to access health insurance and (voluntary) unemployment insurance as well as occupational and personal pension schemes for self-employed persons under affordable conditions;

19.  Calls on the Commission and the Member States to promote minimum social security standards and collective agreements in the CCS, inter alia by linking public support to compliance with such standards;

Education and training

20.  Stresses the need for Member States to improve their training, learning and qualification systems, enabling students in cultural and arts disciplines to acquire a complete training which takes account of today's professional needs in order to bring business and teaching closer together, and to ensure effective implementation in all the Member States; considers that in IT courses sufficient attention should be devoted to opportunities in the online content sector (e.g. gaming);

21.  Takes the view that it is necessary, as part of training in cultural, artistic and creative disciplines, also to teach the skills which are a prerequisite for starting up a CCS enterprise;

22.  Considers it essential to enhance the attractiveness and image of manual, artistic and cultural training among learners, the parents of schoolchildren and institutions, and to re-establish the truth as regards opportunities and wealth creation, including by setting up an observatory or a database;

23.  Stresses the importance of preserving and promoting the craft trades linked to the CCS;

24.  Calls on the Commission to recognise the specific nature of the master crafts, which are genuine sources of European jobs that are based on four criteria common to all the high-end CCS: innovation and creativity; excellence and aestheticism; know-how and technology; and career-long learning and promotion of knowledge;

25.  Considers it necessary to strengthen the links between the education system (including universities, while respecting their independence), research centres, training organisations and CCS companies (including SMEs), in order to make these job-rich sectors more competitive, create more inclusive cross-sectoral and inter-disciplinary synergies, in particular through the creation of a platform for exchanges, of knowledge alliances, of sector skills alliances and of partnerships, help participants think and act in a manner likely to lead to collective success, further increase the value of the Union's human capital, ensure better knowledge among actors, identify specific skills, improve understanding of developments in jobs and skills, and encourage an entrepreneurial spirit;

26.  Encourages the Commission to set up knowledge alliances between higher education and businesses in the field of CCS;

27.  Encourages the Commission to set up sector skills alliances between vocational education and training and businesses in the field of CCS;

28.  Urges the Commission and the Member States to make progress on mutual recognition of courses, vocational qualifications and diplomas in cultural and arts studies;

29.  Highlights the importance of supporting cultural and media literacy access and education from an early age and on a lifelong basis, in order to promote creativity and allow talents to be developed, and to pass on a taste for culture;

30.  Highlights the urgent need to promote the creativity of young creators and to support public participation in the creation of culture;

31.  Considers that arts and cultural education is a prerequisite for equal opportunities, for democratising access to culture, and for social cohesion, as a means of individual and collective expression and dialogue and a way of promoting mutual understanding; stresses, moreover, that it helps schoolchildren to cultivate themselves by developing their artistic abilities, meeting artists, viewing works of art and visiting places of cultural value;

32.  Calls on the Commission and the Council to consider setting up a European directory of expertise with a view to preserving and promoting European expertise; calls on the Member States and CCS stakeholders to develop training courses on such expertise;

Funding for the cultural and creative sectors

33.  Considers that it is vital to enable and secure appropriate funding schemes, and to provide effective implementation instruments for the CCS, in particular for SMEs; stresses the need to maintain and strengthen government policies in support of the CCS, thereby ensuring the future viability of high-quality independent creative work; calls on the Commission and the Council to develop means of evaluating intangible works, particularly by establishing an observatory or a databank, and to consider setting up a cultural investment bank;

34.  Highlights too, in this connection, new options such as crowdfunding and crowd-investment;

35.  Urges Member States to take into consideration appropriate support and funding for the CCS in their social and economic policies;

36.  Stresses the need to support European funding of the CCS, including in times of economic crisis; expressly asks Parliament to push for an ambitious and substantial culture budget; calls, therefore, on the Council not to reduce the budget allocated by the Commission for the ‘Creative Europe’ programme;

37.  Emphasises the importance of developing consultancy and advisory services in respect of business financing and management to help SMEs and VSBs master the requisite tools for good corporate governance, with a view to improving the creation, production, promotion and distribution of cultural goods and services;

38.  Takes the view that the Member States and the relevant professionals should improve the project engineering capacities of CCS stakeholders by providing vocational training or by setting up bodies to assist in the drawing-up of financing plans;

39.  Welcomes the proposed loan facilities foreseen under the Creative Europe, COSME and Horizon 2020 programmes, as these instruments offer more diversified financing opportunities to the CCS;

40.  Stresses the importance of increasing knowledge within financial institutions of the specific characteristics of the CCS in order to improve the access for the CCS to private sources of financing;

41.  Calls on the Council, the Commission and the Member States to take the action required by recommending mixed methods of funding, such as public-private partnerships, which would be subject to transparency requirements and which would not undermine necessary public funding, by setting up loan-guarantee systems for small organisations and by looking into alternative means of financing such as crowd-funding;

42.  Urges the Member States to seek alternative ways of funding the CCS, especially in times of crisis; considers, in this connection, that sponsorship could be a viable alternative option;

43.  Takes the view that, in the audiovisual sector, the contribution of audiovisual services to the funding of European audiovisual works is essential to support creative endeavours and should be strengthened by the clear and quantified transposition of the Audiovisual Media Services Directive (16) ;

44.  Urges the Council, the Commission and the Member States to put in place a favourable regulatory framework, in particular by creating a favourable business environment for SMEs within the CCS by reducing their administrative and regulatory burdens;

45.  Urges the Council, the Commission and the Member States to make further progress towards tax harmonisation and, in particular, to put an end to divergences between Member States in the taxation of cultural products;

46.  Points out that these sectors contain a great many SMEs and considers it necessary to establish a tax system tailored to such SMEs in order to promote their growth and ensure their survival;

47.  Notes that the Structural Funds offer substantial opportunities in terms of funding for culture, creativity and innovation in the Union, given that culture-based investments can receive funding under all three objectives of cohesion policy, namely convergence, regional competitiveness and employment;

48.  Deplores the proposal by some Member States to cut funding for the Connecting Europe Facility by EUR 8,2 billion in the coming multiannual financial framework (MFF), since this would have an adverse effect on support for the expansion of broadband infrastructure and thus on the development of online business models for the CCS;

49.  Calls, therefore, on the Member States and the Commission to use existing and future tools and programmes, such as MEDIA or the Creative Europe programme's guarantee mechanism, and to take specific measures to facilitate access by CCS stakeholders to the funding available under these instruments, with particular focus on the maximum effective use of digitisation of platforms to simplify submission, evaluation and management processes and minimise administrative burdens;

50.  Encourages the EU institutions to secure an ambitious level for the new MEDIA strand in the MFF (2014-2020);

Opportunities and challenges of digitisation, globalisation and access to international markets

51.  Believes that digital and online tools and platforms offer unprecedented opportunities for the CCS to develop new business models, attract new audiences and expand their markets both within the Union and in third countries;

52.  Stresses that the existence of 27 different intellectual property rights management systems is a particular burden for Europe's CCS, and that the current fragmented regime needs to be reformed to facilitate access to, and increase (global) circulation of, content, and in such a way as to enable artists, creators, consumers, businesses and audiences to benefit from digital developments, new distribution channels, new business models and other opportunities;

53.  Believes that in the digital era, a modern and balanced system for protecting intellectual property rights (IPRs) which makes it possible both to ensure appropriate remuneration for all categories of rightholders and to guarantee that consumers have easy access to diverse, legal content and a real choice in terms of linguistic and cultural diversity, is an essential condition for ensuring that the CCS are competitive;

54.  Stresses that the protection of IPRs should not threaten the neutrality of the internet;

55.  Highlights the exponential growth in the use of innovative digital services to access cultural works, and stresses the need to ensure a stable ecosystem that encourages investment in the CCS, job creation in Europe and the promotion of innovative business models;

56.  Calls, therefore, on the Commission, as regards respect for IPRs, to develop a regulatory framework which is adapted to the specific features of the various sectors, and to harmonise and reform the copyright framework in order to improve access to content and strengthen the position and choice of creators, and advocates better sharing of responsibilities throughout the digital value chain, taking due account of the competitiveness of the CCS;

57.  Stresses in this connection the important role played by collecting societies in providing access to cultural heritage, by enforcing IPRs effectively and simplifying formalities for users;

58.  Points out the international cooperation and export potential of the CCS and the fact that it is in the Union's interests to promote exchanges among professions in the sector, including in third countries, and to attract and develop creative talent; stresses the important role played by the cultural and creative industries in the dissemination, attractiveness and promotion of European culture;

59.  Stresses the need to strive towards the mutual recognition of the status of artists, to look into how to provide opportunities for mobility and how best to make use of training programmes, networking and the free movement of CCS professionals, particularly cultural stakeholders, as well as artists and works;

60.  Considers it essential for the EU and its Member States to maintain the possibility of preserving and developing their cultural and audiovisual policies, and to do so in the context of their existing laws, standards and agreements, including the Unesco Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions; calls, therefore, for the exclusion of cultural and audiovisual services, including those provided online, to be clearly stated in agreements between the Union and third countries; emphasises in this connection the need to keep the cultural and audiovisual outside the scope of the negotiating mandate for the EU-US free trade agreement, while pointing out that cultural and creative works are not goods like any others;

61.  Stresses the need for the EU and its Member States to devise and draft, in accordance with the Unesco Convention of 2005, policies in favour of cultural diversity that are suited to the digital age;

62.  Stresses the need to strengthen policies on the digitisation of works to promote access to as many works of the European cultural heritage as possible;

63.  Underlines the importance of cultural diplomacy, as well as the need for the EU to act as a global player in order to enhance the global competitiveness of its CCS;

64.  Calls on the Commission to propose suitable instruments to enable the CCS to export to the international markets under the right conditions;

65.  Calls for the European External Action Service to be used to promote the CCS;

66.  Points out that culture has indirect effects on other economic sectors; calls, therefore, on the CCS to step up cooperation with other sectors such as information and communications technologies (ICT) and tourism with a view to meeting the challenges of digital technology, globalisation and access to international markets;

Local and regional development

67.  Stresses the importance of regional cultural and creativity policies, and hence the central role of local, regional and macroregional authorities in promoting and supporting the CCS, also paying due regard to popular culture, by making use of the right instruments and financing arrangements; welcomes the initiatives taken by public administrations to develop regional business support structures for the creative industries, including through projects funded by the EU;

68.  Stresses that the cultural and creative industries should become a part of EU and national socio-economic strategies; underlines the need for further coordination of various policies, including industrial, educational and innovation policies, tourism policies, and regional, urban, local and spatial development; also encourages local and regional authorities, in line with the principle of subsidiarity, to include the CCS in their medium- and long-term economic strategies;

69.  Highlights the cross-sectoral nature of the cultural and creative industries as an attractive communications tool and the global importance of these industries, not just for the world economy, but also for sustainable, smart and inclusive growth, innovation, entrepreneurship, social cohesion, and societal development; stresses the fact that these sectors have a rich local and regional potential for growth, representing new market opportunities for entrepreneurs of cultural and creative industries and thus cultural employment;

70.  Believes that the different competencies covered by these industries, as well as the interaction between creators and technologies, are often locally rooted and so should be supported by establishing local and regional platforms, networks, clusters, business incubators, and partnerships that would foster synergies, help find mechanisms to finance creativity and innovation, and support the management of job vacancies and funding opportunities;

71.  Stresses the importance of culture in the social and economic revitalisation of cities; urges the Commission to support peer learning among city administrations with a view to encouraging local government policymakers to share good practices;

72.  Believes that the modernisation of cultural infrastructure can help to revitalise urban areas, with ensuing social and economic benefits;

73.  Recommends exploiting the hidden economic potential in the creative sectors so as to improve the quality of life in cities and regions;

74.  Advocates an approach based on territorial dynamics with a view to involving all stakeholders (artists, local authorities, representatives of professionals, etc) in cultural governance at local and regional level;

75.  Points out that the cultural and creative industries, as a source of potential in terms of more and better jobs in the regions, are able to contribute to social and territorial integration; is concerned that these aspects of the cultural and creative industries are not sufficiently analysed and supported; stresses that the collection of statistical data in these sectors is inadequate at all levels, with the worst situation being at regional and local level; stresses that the impact of ICT on the cultural and creative sectors needs to be analysed, so that they can adapt to the new technological environment and link to technological developments;

76.  Stresses the important role played by the CCS, in particular SMEs, as a lever for growth and development at local, regional and crossborder (Member State) level, particularly by promoting the cultural heritage, tourism and centres of excellence, helping to make regions attractive, paying special attention to regions with high cultural heritage, restructuring the socioeconomic fabric, developing new activities and creating stable and sustainable jobs; points out that this applies in particular to tourism, since towns and regions with a robust culture sector are especially attractive to tourists;

77.  Highlights the importance of educational schemes in the promotion of creativity from early childhood on and for fostering artistic and cultural education by promoting an interest in the work and products of the creative industry during primary and secondary education; stresses that since local and regional authorities are often responsible for pre-school and primary education, they should play an important educational and cultural role in this process of addressing culture and creativity as an integral part of regional and urban development; underlines the importance of the non-formal training of adults in developing skills to adapt to a constantly changing labour market;

78.  Emphasises that funding available under the future MFF, especially under the ESF and ERDF, should be used to help strengthen the cultural and creative industries as well as the national, regional and local institutional and administrative capacity to work together, thus increasing the economic, social, educational, and cultural gains from these industries; draws attention to the outermost regions where setting up and developing the cultural and creative industries is more complicated;

79.  Takes the view, therefore, that the territorialisation requirements that come with certain regional or national cinema aid measures help maintain this link between culture and geography and should, in accordance with the conditions laid down in the 2001 Cinema communication(17) , be maintained;

80.  Notes that the CCS are subject to dynamic transformation and enable the creation of clusters which drive progress and the development of cities and regions;

81.  Points to the fact that the cultural and creative industries contribute to the maintenance and improvement of Europe's immense cultural, historical, and architectural heritage; stresses the importance of movable cultural heritage, i.e. artefacts as products of human creativity throughout history up to the present day; stresses that the CCS are important for the development of the EU tourism industry and are of huge interest to tourists from both EU and non-EU countries; believes, in view of this added value, that the CCS should be strongly supported by the future EU budget and through national and regional programming documents drawn up for the period 2014-2020, given that they bring with them important economic opportunities;

82.  Highlights the need to preserve the national heritage and promote the cultural content of a given region at home and abroad;

83.  Considers that creative people, products and services, as part of the cultural diversity of the EU, should form the basis of a strong single European market and well-developed regions, as well as of local economies where they can contribute to the creation of new economic activities and new jobs; calls for better use of the cultural and creative industries in attracting new investment and varied talent to Europe; stresses that entrepreneurs in the CCS do not have easy access to funding; calls on the Member States to adopt adequate social and fiscal measures to support the creative economy and to support new business models for cultural and creative industries adapted to the European market, which would enable the mobility of artists and people working in the cultural and creative industries, as well helping them overcome obstacles related to different tax or social systems and language barriers, and to promote better understanding among countries and cultures;

o
o   o

84.  Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission and the governments and parliaments of the Member States.

 

(1) OJ L 201, 25.7.2006, p. 15.
(2) OJ C 311, 21.12.2007, p. 7.
(3) OJ C 287, 29.11.2007, p. 1.
(4) OJ L 372, 27.12.2006, p. 1.
(5) OJ L 327, 24.11.2006, p. 12.
(6) OJ C 247 E, 15.10.2009, p. 32.
(7) OJ C 125 E, 22.5.2008, p. 223.
(8) OJ C 247 E, 15.10.2009, p. 25.
(9) Doc. 8749/1/09 REV 1 and 8749/1/09 REV 1 COR 1.
(10) OJ C 377 E, 7.12.2012, p. 135.
(11) OJ C 377 E, 7.12.2012, p. 142.
(12) Doc. 17566/12.
(13) CdR 2391/2012.
(14) SWD(2012)0286.
(15) COM(2012)0537.
(16) OJ L 95, 15.04.10, p. 1. Corrected version published in OJ L 263, 6.10.2010, p. 15.
(17) OJ C 43, 16.2.2002, p. 6.