2010-05-09
GREEN PAPER - Unlocking the potential of cultural and creative industries
The objective of this consultation is to gather views on various issues impacting the cultural and creative industries in Europe, from business environment to the need to open up a common European space for culture, from capacity building to skills development and promotion of European creators on the world stage. The responses to the consultation will inform the Commission and help it ensure that EU programmes and policies involving cultural and creative industries are "fit for purpose".
In the recent decades the world has been moving at a faster pace. For Europe and other parts of the world, the rapid roll-out of new technologies and increased globalisation has meant a striking shift away from traditional manufacturing towards services and innovation. Factory floors are progressively being replaced by creative communities whose raw material is their ability to imagine, create and innovate.
In this new digital economy, immaterial value increasingly determines material value, as consumers are looking for new and enriching "experiences". The ability to create social experiences and networking is now a factor of competitiveness.
If Europe wants to remain competitive in this changing global environment, it needs to put in place the right conditions for creativity and innovation to flourish in a new entrepreneurial culture.
There is a lot of untapped potential in the cultural and creative industries to create growth and jobs. To do so, Europe must identify and invest in new sources of smart, sustainable and inclusive growth drivers to take up the baton. Much of our future prosperity will depend on how we use our resources, knowledge and creative talent to spur innovation. Building on our rich and diverse cultures, Europe must pioneer new ways of creating value-added, but also of living together, sharing resources and enjoying diversity.
Europe's cultural and creative industries offer a real potential to respond to these challenges thereby contributing to the Europe 2020 strategy and some of its flagship initiatives such as the Innovation Union, the Digital Agenda, tackling climate change, the Agenda for new skills and new jobs or an industrial policy for the globalisation era.
Many recent studies have shown that the cultural and creative industries (hereafter, "CCIs") represent highly innovative companies with a great economic potential and are one of Europe's most dynamic sectors, contributing around 2.6 % to the EU GDP, with a high growth potential , and providing quality jobs to around 5 million people across EU- 27.
Furthermore, cultural contents play a crucial role in the deployment of the information society, fuelling investments in broadband infrastructures and services, in digital technologies, as well as in new consumer electronics and telecommunication devices.
Beyond their direct contribution to GDP, CCIs are also important drivers of economic and social innovation in many other sectors.
Imaginative solutions in many different sectors stem from creative thinking in these industries, ranging from the regeneration or "branding" of countries, regions or cities to the development of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) skills (e-skills) for lifelong learning, from stimulating research to communicating values in an accessible way, from product and service innovation to the promotion of low carbon and sustainable economic environments, from inter-generational dialogue to intercultural dialogue and community building.
Through partnerships with education, CCIs can also play a major role in equipping European citizens with the creative, entrepreneurial and intercultural skills they need. In this sense, CCIs can feed into European beacons of excellence and help us become a knowledge-based society. At the same time, these skills stimulate demand for more diverse and sophisticated contents and products. This can shape the markets of tomorrow in a way which better fits European assets.
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