The Competences in Culture Conference

Two days of fruitful meetings, ten panel discussions and over three hundred and fifty participants; this is a thumbnail sketch of the COMPETENCES IN CULTURE conference organised under the auspices of Poland's presidency of the Council of the European Union. The conference consisted of several series of panel discussions focussed around three main topic areas; culture, audiovisual issues and copyright. Over the course of two days, experts from the countries of the European Union endeavoured to respond to the main topics, all of them issues relating to culture and cultural competences in the widest sense.

The conference was opened by Dr Monika Smoleń, Undersecretary of State at the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. The Deputy Minister of Culture emphasised the role of culture as a factor in social and economic development and as a cornerstone of creativity and innovation in every field, an essential aspect of the knowledge- and competence-based development of both the state and society. She drew attention to the role of cultural education, which should begin both formally and informally during the earliest learning years. She listed the areas around which the individual panels at the conference were arranged, areas such as the protection and preservation of cultural heritage, the distribution and use of digital works and the necessity of developing transparent and effective principles for collective copyright administration.
Following the Deputy Minister, Jan Truszczyński, a member of the European Commission, also underlined both the need for education as a factor in building the intellectual foundations for democracy and the priority attached to protecting creative artists' intellectual property.
David Uwemedimo, of the World Intellectual Property Organisation added that collective copyright administration is a force for public good, allowing the artist to receive due remuneration for their work and the end user to be of ‘clear conscience' as they make use of that work. He added that, in an era of digitisation and the use of works online, copyright administration must be international in nature and facilitated by an effective system for obtaining copyright-related information rapidly. Underscoring the necessity for establishing a public-private partnership, he stressed the fact that we are not rivals, but associates in the use of cultural property and that it is only through dialogue that we are capable of developing solutions and partnership between all the interested parties.
Michał Merczyńsk, director of the National Audiovisual Institute, presented the programme for the European Culture Conference, which is to be held in Wrocław in September this year.

PANEL DISCUSSIONS SERIES TOPIC: CULTURAL COMPETENCES. THE CONTRIBUTION OF CULTURE AND CREATIVITY TO BUILDING EUROPE'S INTELLECTUAL CAPITAL

The Role of Cultural Competences in Building Europe's Intellectual Capital
During this discussion, the panel of experts drew attention to the various definitions of ‘cultural competences' and their widely understood meaning, not only as artistic skills and talents, but also as a way of thinking, as attitudes. They emphasised the enormous role played by creativity and innovation in developing these competences. The proper education of children and young people is also of tremendous significance. Studies carried out on selected groups of children and young people in several selected European Union countries revealed that increasing artistic education has a beneficial effect on the overall development of the young; on their intelligence and emotional growth, the development of their interpersonal communication skills and their ability to cope with stress. The research was carried out by Szilvia Németh under the Drama Improves Lisbon Key Competences in Education (DICE) project.

From the Word to the Deed. The Need for Cultural Project Financing from National and European Funds
The next panel discussion arranged under the topic of culture was devoted to the appropriate use of national and European funds in financing cultural projects. Chairing the meeting, European Commission representative Vladimir Sucha, appealed for increasing awareness as regards the appropriate use of funding for cultural projects at both the national and European level. The panel members were unanimous in emphasising the need for the development of a ‘common language' for communication in the field of culture and for the sharing of experiences between individual countries. Talking about entrepreneurship in culture and the use of EU funds on the basis of his own experiences in developing activities in the cultural field, Maciej Mazerent, founder of Purpose Magazine - Enterprise in Culture, underlined the need to motivate those who are interested, stimulating them to become more active in obtaining EU funds and be more responsible for using them appropriately. Vladimir Sucha appealed to the participants for greater activity and creativity in the cultural field, saying that “There is money for culture, but we're still not ready to use it appropriately". He again laid emphasis on the need for collaboration, uniting the power and role of movements, of social organisations, in the development of culture, citing the Polish Citizens for Culture movement as a good example.

SERIES TOPIC: AUDIOVISUAL ISSUES

Conference on the Future of Digital Archives
This part of the conference was devoted to digitisation, the future and the creative use of archives as the cultural  heritage of the European Union. At a time of technological development, the digitisation of archives and new cultural works has become a necessity and demands the development of an efficient system for storing digitalised copies. The issue of film was enlarged upon as a field of art demanding very rapid digitisation on account of technological development and the increasingly rare use of the analogue media which is celluloid film stock. Digitisation technology is expensive, but is recompensed by the correspondingly lower distribution, copying and projection costs. Archives should be accessible to the public and meet society's ever-growing demands. One indispensable element of the digitisation process is the development of new business models which will make for profitable investment in archives. Archives should constitute a systematic information structure. They should create social links around the material they hold, be an interesting source of historical knowledge and reflect social and cultural changes. The purpose of the digitised archiving of films should be to preserve their original quality and ‘give new life' to analogue copies which are steadily deteriorating. Digitised film and television archives are an easy-to-use multimedia source and lend themselves not only to historical contexts, but also as a basis for contemporary artistic ventures. The preservation of analogue originals continues alongside the digitisation process. Something else that was emphasised was the necessity of clearly establishing copyright when creating digital copies and the need for strong political will in the digitisation process. A common European market for digitised films should be created.

The Restoration of Audiovisual and Film Material. Education via the Archives
The panel underlined both the significance of film as part of the cultural heritage and the need to introduce film education for young people and teachers alike. The importance of digital restoration was emphasised, as was the need to set up a cohesive system for the management of digital copies and a broad and transparent database of every digitised film. The multifaceted nature of film was stressed, along with the role it plays for specific end users, who employ digital copies in a variety of ways. As a highly complex process, digitisation demands precise management and a supremely well drawn-up plan, with the arrangement of copyright as its starting point. Access to digitised material via the Internet is essential, since archives and artisitic works are in the public domain, yet must be properly managed.

Digital distribution of audiovisual and film material
The discussion touched on the distribution of works in the era of digitisation, looking at various aspects and possibilities, as well as at the risks arising from easy access to enormous numbers of works via the Internet. The opportunities presented by new distribution methods were discussed in the context of the future of European cinematography and recourse to digital archives in support of current film productions.

SERIES TOPIC: COPYRIGHT. COPYRIGHT AND NEIGHBOURING RIGHTS IN A DIGITAL ENVIRONMENT

An expanded European Copyright Licensing System as a Potential Solution to Current Copyright Dilemmas
The panel presented the advantages and disadvantages of the expanded European Copyright Licensing (ECL) model widely used in the Scandinavian countries and discussed the best solutions for collective copyright administration and the licensing of orphan works in the EU. Consideration was given both to applying the ECL system to every Member State and to the dangers and opportunities arising from the system. It was agreed that the ECL has the potential of being extraordinarily useful in solving specific copyright-related problems in individual cases, but that a great many aspects of its wide-scale application must be deliberated further. In an era of globalisation, an efficient, international copyright administration system is crucial. Nonetheless, it must be beneficial to every country and to all the entities involved.

Licensing audiovisual works online
The aim of the panel was to discuss the international licensing of audiovisual works used online and the need for a unified European market as regards the dissemination of audiovisual cultural works on the Internet. Countries differ in respect of the rights invested in collective copyright administration organisations. It is thus necessary to draw up an efficient model for a licence permitting the use of digital media without detriment to the authorised entities.

Over three hundred and fifty representatives of European cultural institutions took part in the conference. In closing the two-day meeting, Under-Secretary Monika Smoleń underlined the fact that what is needed are concrete actions, taken with a view to supporting cultural competences, which should be understood not only as cultural and artistic education, but also as participation in culture, respect for copyright and the competent use of digitally stored cultural heritage. She emphasised the future use that would be made of the conclusions drawn at the conference during Poland's presidency of the Council of the European Union. What is crucial is more robust funding of culture within the EU's financial policy, not only in terms of its financing under the auspices of the European Regional Development Fund, but also in respect of bringing it under the umbrella of the funding dispensed by the European Social Fund. Something which is of importance to the Polish presidency of the Council of Europe is The New Renaissance report on the digitisation of European cultural heritage. Its primary message is an appeal for all Member States to bring their cultural heritage and the materials held in museums and libraries online. Dr Smoleń expressed the hope that the report's recommendations would be implemented during the Polish presidency.

The COMPETENCES IN CULTURE CONFERENCE, held on 19^th-20^th July, was organised by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, together with the National Audiovisual Institute under the auspices of Poland's presidency of the Council of the European Union.

The conference was opened by Dr Monika Smoleń, Undersecretary of State at the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage

The Competences in Culture Conference - David Uwemedimo, of the World Intellectual Property Organisation

Panel: The Role of Cultural Competences in Building Europe's Intellectual Capital