The European Commission launched today an invitation to tender for a preparatory action in the field of Culture in EU External Relations. Deadline: 17 August 2012

The overall objective is to help advance ongoing policy reflection on strengthening the role of culture in external relations and to nurture future work in this area.

The contract will aim at formulating recommendations for a strategy on culture in EU external relations, which will build on synergies with other existing processes and will involve a high number of stakeholders in Europe and representatives of third countries, including cultural institutes and NGOs.

Short Background
Enhancing the role of culture in the external relations of the EU is one of the three strategic objectives of the European Agenda for Culture adopted in 2007. Since then, increasing attention has been devoted to this issue and a variety of players (EU Institutions, Member States, civil society) has been involved in the reflection on how to strengthen the role of culture in the EU relations with its partner countries while developing a more comprehensive and coherent strategy in this respect.

In this context the European Parliament voted a budget of 500 000 EUR for a preparatory action in this field. The European Commission is implementing the preparatory action through this call for tenders.

http://ec.europa.eu/culture/news/120612-pilotproject-eac09_en.htm