On 10 September, European Commission President-elect Ursula von der Leyen presented her new Commission, with a structure of 8 Vice Presidents who stand for the new work priorities of the Commission. At the heart of the work of the European Commission will be climate change, technology and demography that are transforming our societies and way of life.
Live DMA welcomes these set priorities and is convinced that culture and music have a big role to play. We therefore ask to re-introduce the term culture in the title of the designated Commissioner Mariya Gabriel, that is currently missing in her title “Innovation and Youth”.
We also ask a change in the title of the Vice President Margaritis Schinas for “Protecting the European Way of Life” so as to render the diversity of way of lives in Europe and to avoid connecting Europe with ideas of protectionism and rejection of others.
Culture is included in the Treaty of Lisbon (Art.167) and the “New European Agenda for Culture” adopted in May 2018 sets out the priorities for the coming years by building a stronger Europe through new initiatives for education, culture and youth. We therefore call upon the President of the European Commission to reinforce the role of culture for the development of the European Union.
With the College, President-elect von der Leyen suggests an open and inclusive way of working – such a cooperative way is ideal to mainstream culture in all policy areas and Live DMA calls on the European Commission to give room to culture in all its policy areas.
Live DMA highly welcomes the words of the mission letter to Commissioner Gabriel that state “culture is about freedom of expression, identity and diversity”. With this in mind, we look forward to exchanging with the designated Commissioner on the role of culture, its policies and the EU funding programmes for culture.
#BringCultureBack
Official Press release on the new European Commission
Von Der Leyen’s mission letter to Mariya Gabriel (Innovation & Youth)