Cultural Policy of the Comission of the European Union

The aim of the work is to comprehensively study the cultural policy of one of the main supranational institutions of the EU institutional system – the European Commission. To achieve this goal, the legal documents that defi ne thelegal status of the powers, functions, place and role of the European Commission in the process of European integration are analyzed, the content, directions and mechanisms of its cultural policy which is carried out in conjunction with the concepts of European governance and the construction of the information society are characterized. The main attention is paid to the analysis of the acts of secondary law initiated by the European Commission, cultural programs and projects that refl ect the priority of EU cultural policy, the strategic composition of integration processes within it – preservation and approval of European cultural heritage. The chronological boundaries of the study cover the beginning of 1990–2018 – a period of profound transformations in the cultural policy of the EU, a signifi cant increase in its role in the system of integration strategies, the formation of a single European cultural space. The methodology of research of the article includes: general scientifi c (historical, logical, systemic, structural-functional, classifi cations, logicalsemantic) and special-scientifi c (defi nitive analysis, historical-chronological, source analysis and synthesis) methods, use of terminological apparatus of jurisprudence, European law, theories of public administration. Scientifi c novelty, given the limited research in Ukrainian archival science on this topic, is a comprehensive coverage of European experience in legislative development of cultural heritage and its components – archival and audiovisual heritage, the introduction of effective management mechanisms, the latest information and communication technologies, modern digital standards, preservation of cultural content. The conclusions substantiate the need to study this experience and its adaptation to solving problems and tasks of the state archives.