Culture in Serbia without European support?
Culture sector in Serbia should not expect major changes at the systematic levels from the announced opening of Chapter 26 in negotiations with the European Union, as the EU policy will not affect this area, except from providing a framework for its development through financial support programs, such as the Creative Europe.
Therefore, it is up to the actors of the cultural scene themselves to fight for improvement of the position of culture in society and obtain the release of cultural policy measures that would enable the sustainability and development of this sector, and therefore gain equal participation in European support programs, as it was said October 26th at the panel discussion "Culture in Serbia without Europe" at the stand of the EU Delegation and EU Info Centre at the 61st Book Fair in Belgrade.
In a discussion between representatives of the EU Delegation, Creative Europe Desk and Media Desk, Forum for Culture of the European Movement, the Expert Team Europe Serbia and Kolarac, with participants of the independent cultural scene and experts from the audience, a number of problems were tackled with which institutions and organizations of civil society are being faced due to inadequate cultural policy, but also because of economic, and primarily tax policies.
Since culture in Serbia is not on the scale of priorities, and it was not even mentioned as one of the topics during election campaigns of political parties, also considering budget reductions in culture- both on local and state levels, and that there is a number of open issues, including a lack of cooperation between the public and civil sector in the mutual interest of strengthening capacities, it was concluded at the discussion that the opening of Chapter 26 might be a chance for these important issues to once again find themselves in the public eye, among other things, due to the long-awaited Strategy for the development of culture that is foreseen by the Law on culture, which is, according to the announcement of Minister Vladan Vukosavljević, finally under construction and should be a subject of a public hearing at the beginning of next year.
The interview was moderated by Vesna Milosavljević, editor of Portal SEEcult.org.
(SEEcult.org)
