European agenda for culture in a globalising world

The Commission presents a Staff Working Document on progress towards shared goals with respect to the European Agenda for Culture. It recalls that the EU is playing an increasing role in cultural policy and European cultural cooperation. The European Agenda for Culture in a globalising world, marking the beginning of a new era in this area. It was proposed by the European Commission in May 2007 and endorsed by the Council of the EU and by the European Council in November and December 2007 respectively. Three years on, the European Commission has published a Report on the progress made with the Agenda and the path that lies ahead (see COM(2010)0390).

This working document supplements the Report and aims to give an overview of the developments in EU policies in which culture is present in one way or another, focusing on the period from 2007 to the present. In particular, it highlights the progress in making sure that culture aspects are properly taken into account in relevant EU policies ("mainstreaming"), and examines culture in the Union’s internal policies and programmes in the fields of cohesion policy, employment, education, communication and many others. The report also looks at culture in external relations and development policies and programmes.