The document provides recommendations from the Advisory Committee of the Eastern Partnership Culture Programme for the next phase from 2015-2017. It recommends establishing Culture Contact Points in the Eastern Partnership countries to support cultural organizations, promote EU funding programs, and provide capacity building. It also recommends improving the selection process for projects, increasing funds for capacity building, and supporting cultural policy reforms. The goal is to strengthen the cultural sectors of the Eastern Partnership countries.

1. Recommendations of the Advisory Committee of the
Eastern Partnership Culture Programme for European
Commission - DEVCO
Creating a Vision for the next transitory Phase of the Eastern Partnership Culture
Programme (EaP) 2015-2017
The main goal of this Document of policy recommendations is to support the
initiative of the European Commission (EC) for the extension of the Eastern
Partnership Culture Programme and setting new goals in the context of the future
development of the EaP Culture Programme. In order to achieve a long term impact
and a better quality of the future Programme, the Advisory Committee (AC) members
analysed the Programme achievements and tried to anticipate future policy for
cooperation between European Union and the countries of the Eastern Partnership
that carry out activities in the culture sector.
The comprehensive recommendations for EC were developed based on the
meetings of the Advisory Committee in the period October 2012 - December 2013,
on the Mid-term Programme Progress Report of the 15 projects and on Report
summarizing the results of the Cultural Policy Exchange Workshops.
The Advisory Committee of the Eastern Partnership Culture Programme calls on the
EC-DEVCO:
Creating Culture Contact Points (CCP) within the EaP countries
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2. For the next phase, a network of the Culture Contact Points should be set up
in the EaP countries under the umbrella of the EaP Culture Programme.
CCP could:
•
provide advice and support to EaP arts and cultural organizations applying for
EU programmes funding;
•
promote the objectives of the EaP Culture Programme and of the Creative
Europe Programme in the EaP countries;
•
provide guidelines and consulting support to access funding for collaborative
European arts and culture projects;
•
provide capacity building programmes for arts and cultural organisations from
the EaP countries;
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3. •
provide support for collaborative projects, co-productions and intraregional
networking in the EaP countries;
•
provide support for qualitative independent research, information and
dissemination activities for all stakeholders;
•
create an independent media space as well as an independent physical space
for cultural projects (education, production);
•
be a meeting point for those who develop projects;
•
be a common Platform/Channel where to get information for cross-border
cooperation and networking.
CCP’s should:
•
support cultural policy reforms for sustainable cultural development of the EaP
countries;
•
support all stakeholders and institutions that are important to the strategic
development of the country, to avoid competitiveness;
•
focus and invest into the new generation, transfer skills to young west oriented
professionals;
•
play the role of critical and professional media and competent experts;
•
help non-governmental cultural sector to find funding and partners, free of
conflict of interests and open to all possible funds;
•
filter and select available information to what is relevant for local stakeholders;
•
advise the Ministries of Culture (MoC's) based on research, monitoring and
surveys;
•
provide support for the MoC’s in accomplishing their tasks, as a service to the
sector.
It is important for the next phase of the EaP Culture Programme to identify one
contact person/expert per EU Delegation in the EaP countries that will be in charge
of CCP locally to ensure efficiency of the EaP Culture Programme.
Selection of the Projects by EC
It would better serve the sustainable development of the cultural sector if there
would be space for different types of institutions, applying different criteria for
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4. different levels of budgets. Institutions capable to deal with big budget often have a
tendency to apply for grants as part of a business model and not so much because of
their dedication to the causes at stake, while emerging independent civil society
organisations that are full heartedly engaged for supporting the sustainable
development of their society are not eligible and do not get the opportunity to become
eligible, because there is not enough local support that allows for small NGO’s to
grow. This keeps the independent sector weak and leads in consequence to a lack of
qualified and motivated, as well as financially stable institutions that can act as
leading or project partners.
Recommendations for the next tender call of EaP Culture Programme:
•
to introduce for the next call several budget categories/levels connected to
modified/adopted selection criteria;
•
to introduce small grants at country level for small projects, that could team-up
with partners in other countries (co-production), in order to include the transnational (regional) approach of the EC;
•
alternatively to set-up “platforms” that get the big grants for sub-granting to
smaller agents;
•
support should be provided to non-governmental structural funds and
institutions, and not only for projects via grants;
•
to increase the EaP Culture Programme funds;
•
to carry out the new needs assessment separately in each of the EaP
countries for properly preparing the next phase of the programme;
•
to organize a public call for selection of the national expert or the team of
experts who will carry out the needs assessment at the country level in each
EaP country;
•
the EaP Culture Programme should have at least two working languages. The
second one should be defined for different local events/activities depending on
target groups and the region;
•
to involve in the selection process local or regional cultural experts from EaP
countries who know better the stakeholders and cultural sector of the country;
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5. •
to avoid any implication or giving priority to the Regional Monitoring and
Capacity Building Unit (RMCBU) Office in the next call for the tender;
•
to stimulate export of co-production’s of EaP countries on EU market and not
just collaborations between EaP regions;
•
to motivate creation of public-private partnerships;
•
to give priority to organisations from the EaP countries to become leading
partners in the projects.
•
to improve the communication between the Advisory Committee and ECDEVCO by regular annual meetings;
•
in order to avoid any conflict of interest Members of Advisory Committee
should not benefit from programme activities by receiving programme grants
or trainings;
•
in order to avoid any conflicts between the Programme Partners to provide
after selection process a model of Partnership Agreement;
•
taking in account the lack of skills in budgeting and accounting to provide
technical assistance and trainings for EaP organisations;
•
to increase the stuff of RMCBU for monitoring and evaluation of the projects in
the next programme;
•
to set up specific indicators of monitoring and measuring the impact, the
performances and success of the projects and the program;
•
to involve in the staff of the Capacity Building Unity of the next programme
managers with experience in culture sector and not just project managers;
•
taking in account the political situation in Belarus and Azerbaijan to support
legal entity institutions from private cultural sector.
Capacity building programme
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6. For the next phase of the EaP Culture Programme the capacity building
component should be a top priority in order to continue the reinforcement of the
cultural sector of the EaP countries. Currently the intensive trainings are one of the
most efficient instruments for strengthening the capacities of non for profit
organizations, private, public cultural organizations and local public administrations.
Even if it is a strong demand to invest in human resources, in all 6 countries of EaP it
is a lack of institutions and lack of donors that financially support capacity building
programmes, while the MoC's don’t have capacity to do it.
The capacity building programme will contribute to development of long-term
strategies and concrete measures for structural improvements of the cultural sector
in the EaP Countries. In order to improve the capacity building programme the
Advisory Committee recommends:
•
to provide targeted assistance to core institutions of the cultural sector of EaP
countries;
•
to increase the funds for the capacity building programs;
•
to use the capacities building trainings as an instrument for preparing leaders
that will develop and efficiently implement reforms in cultural sectors of EaP
countries;
•
to take active role in upgrading cultural policies in the EaP countries;
•
to design and deliver the capacity building programme separately for every
country according to the specific needs and level of the development of the
cultural sector of the country, since it is inefficient to use the same programme
model, tactics and approaches for all 6 countries;
•
to create specific capacity building programmes for the civil society from
Belorussia;
•
to introduce in the Terms of Reference (ToR) for the next tender for the
capacity building programme a clause of involvement of organizations and
experts from the EaP countries;
•
the company or the consortium selected for providing the capacity building
programme should also include organizations and experts from the EaP
countries;
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7. •
to decentralise the process of delivering the capacity building programme and
to involve local stakeholders in designing the structure and content of the
trainings;
•
to translate guides and manuals on cultural policy and art management in the
languages of the EaP countries;
•
to introduce in the terms of reference (ToR) for the next tender for the capacity
building programme a clause of submitting a manual for the art managers as
the final product of the training;
•
to support cultural higher educational institutions from the EaP countries to
develop and implement their curricula for preparing cultural managers;
•
to select through the next tender a new institution or consortium that will
deliver the capacity building programme and to avoid giving any priority for
Capacity Building Unit for the next phase;
•
to stimulate and support mobility between EaP and EU countries.
•
to prepare for participants of capacity building trainings a contract with specific
responsibilities of involvement and participation in the programme;
•
to prepare a model of evaluation by the trainers of the performances of
participants of the capacity building trainings.
Cultural Policies Reforms
The EaP countries have an asymmetrical level of development of civil society
and of the cultural sector in general. In this context European Commission should
approach each EaP country individually, in order to develop different smart objectives
for every country, with specific projects at local, regional and national level.
In this regard the Advisory Committee recommends:
•
to support developing National Strategies of the Cultural Development in the
EaP countries;
•
to provide necessary support (such as informational, communication, and cofinancing) for ensuring the participation of the Eastern Partnership countries
in the Creative Europe Programme;
•
to update the objectives of the next EaP Culture Programme according to the
DCFTA;
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8. •
to set up new road-maps for development of cultural sectors of the EaP
countries with new indicators of performances in cultural policy reforms;
•
to provide advanced training and professional development opportunities for
governmental and non-governmental workers and cultural institutions with
particular attention on cultural policies, art management, lobby, advocacy
and policy research;
•
to use the analytical base-line reports on the cultural sector and cultural
policy as an instrument for national debates, lobby and advocacy in the
cultural sector of the EaP countries;
•
to consult the MoC's of the EaP countries on harmonizing national reforms
with the European cultural policies and standards;
•
to use the website of the EaP Culture Programme as an open platform for
promotion of the best practices in cultural policies reforms in the EaP
countries;
•
to carry out in the EaP countries new studies and diagnostics on cultural
policies after the first phase of the EaP Culture Programme;
•
to use culture as a tool for regional development;
•
to decentralize cultural projects from the capitals of EaP countries to the
region in order to stimulate active citizen participation in cultural sphere;
•
to encourage the European cultural institutes, such as British Council,
Goethe Institute, Instituto Cervantes, European Cultural Houses etc. to open
their offices in the EaP countries as a tool for European cultural diplomacy;
•
to de-politicize culture as liberation from post-communist mentality;
•
to pay attention to specific national conditions within the intra-regional
approach for Belarus, Armenia and Azerbaijan;
•
to take in account the present political situation of Belarus and to develop
specific strategies and approach for development of the cultural sector of
Belarus with accent on development of civil society;
•
to support creation of National Funds for Culture and Arts Councils in the
EaP countries as an alternative mechanism of financing cultural sector;
•
to stimulate EU donors institutions to invest in the development of cultural
sector of EaP countries.
Transparency of the EaP Culture Programme
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9. •
to carry out an independent financial auditing of the EaP Culture Programme
and of RMCBU Kiev Office;
•
to publish the auditing reports of the EaP Culture Programme on the website
http://euroeastculture.eu;
•
to review and improve the monitoring indicators of measuring the efficiency of
the EaP Culture Programme;
•
to conduct a comprehensive survey of EaP Culture Programme in all
countries in order to measure the impact and efficiency of the Programme
and make the results public by publishing them on the website
http://euroeastculture.eu and distributing them to the stakeholders.
Visibility and Promotion
•
to create an easily accessible database of best practices and success stories
of cultural stakeholders involved in the EaP Culture Programme in order to
multiply the best models of impact at the local and regional level;
•
to increase research into how the EaP Culture Programme is perceived in the
EaP countries through more polling, surveying, and media monitoring;
•
to ensure films subtitling and literature translation projects, into and from
English/other European languages, of the most important literary and
intellectual works from the EaP countries;
•
to streamline visa issues, particularly for cultural actors, artists, intellectuals,
academicians and from the EaP countries;
•
to stimulate international cultural exchange programs by inviting more artists
from the EaP countries in Europe, and sending European counterparts to the
EaP countries;
•
to organise a Public presentation of all projects of EaP Culture Programme in
order to present the final results of the EaP Culture Programme.
Advisory
Committee
hopes
that
implementation
of
these
recommendations will improve the quality of the future EaP Culture Programme.
The document was submitted to the RMCBU Office and it will be distributed also
to the Ministries of Culture of the EaP countries. Please, disseminate this set of
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10. the recommendations among the EC DEVCO team that is in charge with the
current EaP Culture Programme and with persons responsible for the
preparation and designing the next phase of the EaP Culture Programme.
Advisory Committee members from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia,
Moldova and Ukraine are open for fruitful cooperation.
If You have any questions or comments, don't hesitate to contact the
Advisory Committee of Eastern Partnership Culture Programme.
Advisory Committee members:
Chingiz BABAYEV, Azerbaijan
Anna CHISTOSERDOVA, Belarus
Iryna DUBIANETSKAYA, Belarus
Nazareth KAROYAN, Armenia
Levan KHETAGURI, Georgia
Amina MELIKOVA, Azerbaijan
Rusudan MIRZIKASHVILI, Georgia
Yeva SARGSYAN, Armenia
Ghenadie SONTU, Moldova (the Chairman)
Vladislav TROITSKYI, Ukraine
Yulia VAGANOVA, Ukraine
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11. December 13, 2013
Advisory Committee
EASTERN PARTNERSHIP CULTURE PROGRAMME
Kiev, Ukraine
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