Minister of Culture Tanja Saarela in EU-Russia Expert Meeting

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Dear colleagues, Minister Sokolov and Minister Lehtomäki, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentleman

We are here to open the first expert meeting on culture between the European Union, its Member States and the Russian Federation.

I wish you all warmly welcome to Kajaani, the capital of the old province of Kainuu. The castle ruins in the middle of river Kajaani tell us about a history of conflicts and wars, as castles and ruins often do. We are today here on the aborder of the eastern and western cultures of Europe with the purpose of building a cultural bridge of mutual understanding and cooperation. Our meeting is making history. Much is expected from us.

I would like to start by presenting to you, Ladies and Gentlemen, the foreign relations context in which our meeting is arranged. - Let us start at the beginning.

The founding document in the relations between the European Union and Russia is the Agreement on Partnership and Cooperation – PCA for short – which took force in 1997. Its Article 85 relates to culture.

From the outset, then, culture was part of the cooperation areas, but so far the Article has not been activated. The Cooperation Council mentioned in the Article has never convened. Nor has the key decision-making body implementing strategic EU-Russia partnership, the Permanent Partnership Council, ever met in its cultural ministers composition. Culture was at risk of being left by the roadside in the implementation of the PCA.

In 2003, when I was starting my term as Minister of Culture, I was already convinced that cultural cooperation is a strong tool for enhancing tolerance and mutual understanding. My work with cultural, sport and youth policy and church matters have only consolidated this faith in the valuable contribution culture has to make to the public good. Recent times have tragically shown how barriers between cultures and lack of cooperation skills lead to conflicts, death and devastation.

When steps were being taken to build EU-Russia cooperation on the foundation of the Four Common Spaces, I personally saw it important that culture, as an area of cooperation, is not overlooked in the way it had been. My view was bolstered by the proof we in Finland had of the benefits of cultural cooperation with Russia.

We have been developing the Finnish-Russian Cultural Forum since 2000 in order to help cultural actors at the grassroots level to find each other. I personally have attended three Cultural Forums: those in St Petersburg in 2003, in Turku in 2004, and in Vologda in 2005. The enthusiasm and the atmosphere I've witnessed at these Forums, as well as the cooperation and results they produce, have convinced me of the great contribution that direct cooperation between artists, cultural institutions and organisations can make to intercultural understanding, tolerance, access to culture, and the mobility of artists and cultural products. I am similarly convinced that cultural cooperation boosts the economic efficiency and market-driven growth in the sector as a whole.

As Minister of Culture of an EU country, I have come to know European cultural heritage on a wide scale and in depth, its diversifying wealth, its temporal span and the richness of contemporary art. I have also seen glimpses of the immense cultural potential of our neighbour, Russia, her multiculturalism and the spectrum of indigenous cultures. Witnessing this rich intellectual and cultural resource, I have become more and more certain that the EU Member States and Russia have a great deal to give to each other and a great deal to share in cultural terms. Together, the western and eastern cultures in Europe can offer competitive products to the global and rapidly growing cultural and content market.

At the outset, when the EU-Russia Summit and the EU-Russia strategic partnership policy – the four Common Spaces – were being prepared, culture was not discussed at all, but was later added to the agenda. The Federal Republic of Germany worked especially actively for this.

As a means of implementing the four Common Spaces, the parties chose Road Maps, which were later adopted at the Moscow Summit on 10 May 2005. This Expert Meeting in Kajaani has been convened to discuss the implementation of the Cultural Aspects of the Road Map for the Fourth Common Space.

In the other fields of cooperation, implementation has made rapid strides. In culture, the progress has been slower because there is no model for EU-Russia cooperation: there is no cooperation programme, no financial framework, no bodies to prepare cooperation, no procedure for establishing such a body. In culture, we have to begin everything almost from zero.

Dear participants,

The fact that we are right at the beginning is a wonderful opportunity to steer development in the direction we want.

The significance of cultural cooperation has been given a seal of approval at the St Petersburg and Moscow Summits. During the preparations for the Finnish Presidency, I was deliberating how this political will could be translated into practical action.

In the course of the Presidency preparations in 2005, we were in contact with the officials responsible for external relations in the Commission and in the Council. I asked Minister Sokolov for his personal opinion of the matter at the Vologda Forum in 2005. After this groundwork, in January 2006, I discussed the matter with Commissioner Figel', who is in charge of cultural matters. All the parties agreed that we need to take action in order to develop cultural cooperation. As a result of this mutual understanding, we added this Kajaani expert meeting to the Presidency programme.

As participants, we invited one official responsible for international cultural cooperation and one responsible for external relations in the cultural sector from every EU country and from Russia. Additionally, the invited experts include officials responsible for cultural affairs in the Moscow embassies of the EU countries, who have a vantage point into cultural cooperation between their countries and Russia. Minister Sokolov leads the Russian Delegation composed of representatives of both foreign relations and cultural administration. As organisers we are delighted with the participation rate

In EU-Russia cooperation, North-West Russia has quite a special role alongside the Capital City, Moscow. In view of this, the Russian delegation also includes the ministers of culture and chairpersons of the cultural committees of these regions, to whom I extend our cordial welcome.

This opening session gathers together not only all the participants of the EU-Russia meeting, but also around 300 participants of the seventh Finnish-Russian Forum. After the opening, the Forum will work in their own venue, where altogether 65 partner pairs talk about their joint projects.

Dear participants of the EU - Russia Culture Expert Meeting,

At the social events in the evening, you will have opportunities for direct grassroots-level contacts. You can ask the partner pairs how their project negotiations are processing. Although we are otherwise working separately, the evening get-togethers listed in the programme are intended both for the Forum participants and for the participants of our meeting.

I wish the Forum partners welcome to this opening session and hope that in the evenings you actively share your experience with the participants of this meeting.

In outlining the programme, we got valuable expert help from the Commission External Relations, who advised us to focus on the four cooperation fields mentioned in the Road Map. We have invited experts from the EU countries and Russia to tell us how they think cooperation should be developed in these fields, what kind of experiences there are and who could be possible cooperation partners. I want to express our gratitude to all the speakers who accepted our invitation to share their expertise with us as a basis of our discussions. Welcome to help us forward on our road.

The theme of the second day looks at how different intergovernmental organisations - in which both the EU Commission, EU Member States and Russia participate - could contribute to the implementation of the Culture Road Map in the northern areas. The Union and Russia are currently revising their Northern Dimension policy. The starting point for the preparations is that the Northern Dimension region will implement the Road Maps of the Four Common Spaces as applicable. Thus, the northern cultural dimension is a reflection of the cultural aspects of the Fourth Common Space.

We shall also hear the views of the Nordic Council of Ministers, the Council of Europe and the European Parliament about cooperation prospects in the field of culture.

By inviting the regional councils and other intergovernmental bodies, we wanted to underscore the fact that there are already several structures engaged in EU-Russia cooperation. Similarly, cultural actors in the EU countries and in Russia already have joint structures for collaboration. I think a central aim and a major challenge for our meeting is to explore ways to improve conditions for the operation of these structures. It is possible that no new structures will be needed. The existing instruments must be activated, by means of the cooperation agenda outlined in the Road Map, to support culture.

The Presidency Conclusions for this meeting have been drafted by the Rapporteurs, who represent the Commission External Relations; the Directorate-General for Education and Culture; the current and next Presidency, Finland and Germany; and Russian foreign relations and cultural administrations.

The Rapporteurs have prepared Draft Presidency Conclusions for you, dear participants, as a background document. This draft gives the background of the meeting and notes that the Secretariat will compile all the cooperation ideas put forward by participants. These will be available on the web site of the Finnish Ministry of Education after our Meeting, and the participants are invited to supplement them. This material will serve follow-up action.

It is our intention that the Presidency will prepare a meeting document containing (1) the Rapporteurs' summation of the meeting; (2) the measures proposed by the participants; and (3) the Presidency Conclusions. In the background document handed out to you, the last part is still open. The Presidency Conclusions will be formulated at the end of the second day based on all the contributions and discussions. Drawing on the Rapporteurs preparatory work and the expert views presented during the two meeting days, the Conclusions will recommend how the implementation of the Road Map could proceed.

The Road Map already indicates how the work could proceed, noting that the possibility of a cooperation programme will be considered. Our meeting should seek answers to three questions: (1) How should such a cooperation document be drawn up, by whom, and who will decide on it? (2) What kind of and whose cooperation should be given priority? and (3) How should the financing for cooperation be organised?

Our Rapporteurs have studied in advance technical options as regards the form of the document. Their proposal is: it should be a cooperation actionplan. As regards the substance of cooperation, today we look forward to hearing your proposals, which will be recorded for further work. Likewise, I hope that these two days will give us an idea of which intergovernmental bodies are ready to promote cultural cooperation and which cultural networks within the EU would be interested in building cooperation with their counterparts in Russia.

As concerns financing, the Road Map notes that cooperation should be considered within the relevant external relations instruments. This naturally refers to the ENPI, which is currently being developed and which is a key sources of financing along with some others. We should not limit our quest solely to EU sources, there are also national instruments for financing EU-Russia cultural cooperation. At the request of the Ministry of Education, the Finnish Institute for Russian and East European Studies asked each EU country whether they have financing schemes that could support cultural cooperation between it and Russia. – And, yes, there are such instruments. We'll hear more about this later.

On the subject of financing, I would like to point out that culture should not always be seen as an actor which only expends national resources. Cultural production also has a business aspect. For culture, we must ensure conditions conducive to economic cooperation and thereby diversify its financing.

Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen

On behalf of the Presidency, I take great pleasure in opening this first joint meeting on culture between the European Union and Russia. May it be an impetus for cooperation which seeks, to quote the Road Map:

To promote a structured approach to cultural cooperation between the enlarged EU and Russia, to foster the creativity and mobility of artists, public access to culture, the dissemination of art and culture, inter-cultural dialogue and knowledge of the history and cultural heritage of the peoples of Europe."

To strengthen and enhance the European identity on the basis of common values, including freedom of expression, democratic functioning of the media, respect of human rights including the rights of persons belonging to minorities and promotion of cultural and linguistic diversity as a basis of vitality of civil society in Europe without dividing lines.

To develop cooperation between the cultural industries of the EU and Russia in order to increase both their cultural and economic impact.

Dear participant of the EU-Russia Culture Expert Meeting,

I wish you all cordially welcome here to Kajaani to develop the Culture Road Map into a map leading us to practical cultural cooperation!