By the end of this year, new European Parliament and Commission formations will be in place, setting the political course for the next five years and shaping the EU's budgetary priorities for the period from 2028 onwards. Kadri Jauram, adviser on European Union affairs, and Heili Jõe, cultural adviser in Brussels, write about Estonia's plans and directions on the blog Kuva of the Ministry of Culture.
The new composition of the European institutions and the forthcoming budget negotiations will fundamentally shape what will be focused and supported in the fields of culture, audiovisual and sport over the next five years. Of particular importance to Estonia are the cultural and creative support and cooperation opportunities offered by the EU through its programmes and initiatives. On the one hand, we need solid funding opportunities to promote the cultural and creative sectors; on the other hand, we pay great attention to the preservation of cultural heritage and the prevention of disinformation in the EU information space. Estonia's goal at the European Union level is to protect the interests of our cultural and creative sector and to strengthen international cooperation to promote the field.
The European Union supports culture and sport on the basis of a competence which in bureaucratic language means that only joint activities are carried out that allow more to be achieved than the Member States alone could. Article 167 TFEU allows the EU to implement measures, including funding, to promote intercultural dialogue, the mobility of cultural professionals, the dissemination of creation and the protection of cultural heritage.
As a small and open country, we are vulnerable to crises and our resources are limited, which is why EU funding is often a necessary additional tool to support our cultural and creative projects, cooperation and the protection of cultural heritage. However, in order to receive funding, it is necessary to plan early and actively participate in the design of EU actions.
The new composition of the European Parliament and the Commission will lead to a re-prioritisation, and it is in the interests of the cultural sector to ensure that the European Union's support for our areas is maintained and, where possible, increased.
In November, the hearings of the new European Commissioners will take place in the European Parliament, where the first thoughts will be heard and the policy directions will also be tested. It is already clear that the new European Commission intends to focus on improving the competitiveness of the creative sector in the global world and protecting cultural heritage. It is also planned to further address the social guarantees of creators. We are working with other Member States to ensure that the questions that are important to us are answered in these discussions, especially when it comes to promoting cross-border cooperation within the sector.
But now more specifically about the topics on the table:
This year, Tartu, together with Southern Estonia, is the European Capital of Culture. This EU initiative has proved successful in terms of international cooperation, the economy and the living environment, which is why we consider it important to preserve the Capital of Culture initiative and renew its election conditions. Next year, the European Commission will present a proposal to renew the Capitals of Culture initiative.
The Creative Europe programme is the EU's only funding programme for the direct cultural and creative sectors, which has brought significant progress to estonian cultural and audiovisual players. During the forthcoming EU budget negotiations, we will try to ensure that the support measures continue and that those in our fields will continue to be supported in the future.
As part of its preparations, the European Commission has recently published public consultations on the Creative Europe programme and on the present and future of the European Capitals of Culture. In the consultations, the Commission would like to seek the views of the sector and of the Member States. In the course of this autumn, it is planned to form forward-looking positions on both issues at government level and communicate them to the incoming European Commission, so that both the European Capital of Culture initiative and the cultural and audiovisual subsidies do not disappear and ideally respond better to our potential as a small country.
The digitisation of cultural heritage is one of the EU policy priorities for Estonia 2023-2025. We want to create systemic solutions at EU level for preserving digitised cultural heritage beyond national borders. The topic is becoming more and more topical in the current geopolitical situation. In the first half of 2024, we mapped the approaches of other Member States and identified interest in international solutions. At present, there are no coherent and clear systems for preserving digitised cultural heritage, which means that national experiences and practices are different.
The need for a pan-European preservation solution was raised by Minister of Culture Heidy Purga both at the meeting of Nordic-Baltic culture ministers in Stockholm and at the discussion of EU culture ministers in Brussels in spring 2024. Progress at the EU level requires a national agreement on which solution Estonia prefers for the preservation of digitised cultural heritage across borders. This autumn, we will involve other ministries and memory institutions and create a working group to discuss and plan Estonia's position. At the same time, we are also meeting with the European Commission and other Member States to present the proposal to include the issue of heritage conservation in the work programme of the new European Commission, either as a separate action or as a pilot project in future sectoral programmes.
Estonia's policy towards the EU 2023-2025 also sets the goal of protecting the European media space from the influence of third countries and media channels outside the EU. The European Media Freedom Regulation (EMFA) is an important tool here, but Hungary has filed a lawsuit against its implementation, in which Estonia, together with 9 other Member States, opposes Hungary and supports the European Commission and the Council. It is important for us that the regulation and the rules it sets out to prevent the spread of harmful media content can be implemented quickly.
In addition, we are working to add further restrictions to media and information channels in Russia and Belarus in order to prevent disinformation and propaganda, and to ensure that the sanctions that already exist are effectively implemented. For example, together with Latvia and Lithuania, we drew attention to the performances of sanctioned Russian artists on Spotify and Youtube platforms. While Spotify reacted positively to complaints and removed the profiles and works of sanctioned Russian musicians, YouTube interprets the situation very narrowly and refuses to remove content. YouTube's claim that artists cannot monetize their creations on the platform is clearly erroneous, as online platforms offer musicians huge advertising opportunities from which they can benefit both directly and indirectly. In short, we are working to further prevent the spread of propaganda.
All these activities are in constant contact with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the European Commission and other Member States, especially our Baltic colleagues.
In order to implement all these activities, we naturally cooperate closely with colleagues from different departments of the Ministry of Culture, as well as with colleagues from other state institutions, in order to ensure that Estonia's interests are represented and protected at the EU level. At this point, many thanks to all my colleagues for always thinking and acting!