Recommendation 2093 (2016)

Culture and democracy

Author(s): Parliamentary Assembly

Origin - Assembly debate on 23 June 2016 (25th Sitting) (see Doc. 14070, report of the Committee on Culture, Science, Education and Media, rapporteur: Ms Vesna Marjanović). Text adopted by the Assembly on 23 June 2016 (25th Sitting).

1. The Parliamentary Assembly, referring to its Resolution 2123 (2016) on culture and democracy, stresses that culture is a powerful tool for preventing radicalisation and empowering civil society to build democratic citizenship. The Council of Europe has long-standing experience in the field of culture and democratisation, and has to stay at the forefront of positioning culture as an integral part of the democratic process.

2. In this respect, the Assembly fully supports the intergovernmental work on developing “soft power” policies and information tools to assist member States in shaping new cultural and intercultural processes and welcomes the efforts to integrate the activities from different sectors into the Action Plan on Building Inclusive Societies (2016-2019).

3. Accordingly, the Assembly recommends that the Committee of Ministers:

3.1. encourage co-operation between different sectors of the Council of Europe to develop innovative approaches to cultural policies and diversity management, seeking to deliver policy guidance on how member States could better integrate cultural activities into the education system, and improving access to culture for marginalised and underprivileged children and young people;

3.2. provide support for projects that aim to integrate cultural activities into other policy sectors such as health and social services (in particular for the elderly and people with disabilities), prisons and penitentiary rehabilitation schemes;

3.3. launch the Indicator Framework on Culture and Democracy (IFCD), which is an important tool to promote political commitment and investments in the cultural sphere at all levels (local, regional, national and European).

4. The Assembly considers the recent European Union strategy for international cultural relations to be an important step forward and in line with a message that culture has to be integrated into political decision making and therefore invites the Committee of Ministers and the European Union to intensify their exchanges on, and increase their projects in, promoting European cultural values.