EUROPE FOR GLOBAL CREATIVITY: THE IMPACT OF EUROPEAN UNION INITIATIVES ON CULTURAL AND CREATIVE INDUSTRIES

The role of creative industries has become increasingly appreciated in today’s globalized society. Characteristically, the workers and creators of creative industries draw upon cultural roots (frequently looking for inspiration in their national culture), they need the freedom of expression, a global sphere as well as a network society to be productive. This work with its high added value, in turn, supports several other sectors (e.g. tourism), and establishes a vibrant and innovative environment that considerably affects people and their lives. Recognizing the above mentioned developments, the European Union has invested a lot of effort in promoting the development of creative industries. The present study has collected the information specific to these activities with a view to measuring their effectiveness and impacts. In addition to the analysis of the relevant documents and programmes of the European Union, the essay is based on the in-depth study of the COMPENDIUM database about the practices of individual countries. The COMPENDIUM is a web-based and permanently updated information system monitoring the national cultural policies of 42 European countries according to a predefined uniform structure. This transnational project was initiated by the Steering Committee for Culture of the Council of Europe and has been running as a joint venture with the European Institute for Comparative Cultural Research (ERICarts) since 1998. The country profiles, for the most part, only allude to creative industries but the topic is directly addressed under the “Cultural/creative industries: policies and programmes” and “Creativity and participation” chapters by the authors. The definition of creative industries and the demarcation of the sector pose great difficulty and the methods used by individual nations also considerably vary, but they have one thing in common, i.e., their cultural policies do relate to creative industries in some way. Using the above resources, this essay focuses on the following main questions: How do European countries approach the issue of creative industries? What do these approaches have in common? What kind of good practices exist? What kind of impact does EU membership or potential membership have on these initiatives?