Resources: Study on Cultural Provision of CARIFORUM-EU EPA

At the end of 2008, the EU and 15 CARIFORUM countries signed a European-Partnership Agreement (EPA). This was the first time the EU included cultural provisions in a trade agreement with third countries, and it was intended to increase cultural exchanges and business cooperation involving the cultural and creative sectors (incl. visual arts, performing arts, arts fairs, heritage, film and video, television and radio, video games, computer animation, music, publishing, design, fashion etc).

A study has just been released which looks at how Caribbean artists are benefiting from this Agreement: “Implementing Cultural Provisions of CARIFORUM-EU EPA: How do they benefit the Caribbean cultural sector?”.  It was carried out by KEA, a Brussels-based research and advisory company, for the European Centre for Development Policy Management (ECDPM).  Given VPAJ’s work in the creative industries, we were invited by KEA to participate in the research conducted for this study.

The study looks at how eight EU Member States - Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK – have implemented the cultural provisions of the EPA. The findings of the study indicate that the EU Member States and CARIFORUM countries alike are still in the very early stages of implementing the EPA’s Cultural Provisions.  It concludes with a list of recommendations for actions that the EC, the EU Member States and CARIFORUM countries could take to ensure that the Cultural Provisions can effectively increase and boost cultural cooperation and trade.

From KEA’s website, you can download the study (http://www.keanet.eu/docs/KEA_implementing_cultural_provision_Cariforum_EU_EPA.pdf) as well as the Executive Summary (http://www.keanet.eu/docs/KEA_implementing_cultural_provisions_summary.pdf.

------------

For more information contact, please contact Yolanda Smits (ysmits@keanet.eu) or Ana García (agarcia@keanet.eu). Tel. +32.2.289 26 00.