Cultural Policy Resources in South East Europe

5 Cultural Policy Resources in South East Europe

Last updated: 14.08.2023


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1. Cultural policy: country profiles

1. CULTURAL POLICY: COUNTRY PROFILES

01.11.2002 | author: Oana Radu

Federal Republic of Yugoslavia - a full and equal member of the Council of Europe Steering Committee for Culture

	FIRST PUBLISHED IN Policies for Culture Journal, November 2002
	ABOUT THE AUTHOR Oana Radu is Programs director of the ECUMEST Association in Bucharest, and regional coordinator for South East Europe of the Policies for Culture programme. She holds an MA in cultural management from the Dijon Business School, France. (oana.radu@ecumest.ro)

The first Plenary Session of the Council of Europe’s Steering Committee for Culture, which took place in Strasbourg on 9 - 11 October, 2002 welcomed for the first time the Official Delegation of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Policies for Culture interviewed Milena Dragicevic-Sesic, one of the Steering Committee’s four new members, on what this recognition represents and what it means for Serbia and Montenegro.

Although the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia is not yet a full member of the Council of Europe, its participation as an equal member came as a result of the clear political signal given by the Parliamentary Assembly in September when it voted for Yugoslavia's accession to the Council of Europe. Serbia and Montenegro are expected to reach an agreement regarding the Constitutional Charter on relations between the two republics, following which the Council of Europe can invite Yugoslavia to become a full member.

It should be remembered that, from January 2001 on, Yugoslavia has been a special guest to the Parliamentary Assembly, and has been included since then in a number of Council of Europe Conventions, including the European Cultural Convention (which came into force for Yugoslavia in February 2001).

Moreover, collaboration in the cultural field between Yugoslavia and the Council of Europe has already begun, with both Serbia and Montenegro participating in the European Programme of National Cultural Policy Reviews. According to Milena Dragicevic-Sesic, it was the Council of Europe which “animated” the Ministry of Culture through the Ministry’s participation in the evaluation process. The process was launched this spring in both republics, and is currently at different stages of implementation. The national report on Serbian cultural policy is already complete and the report of the foreign experts will soon be made available as well. A national debate on these two reports will take place either in December or more likely at the beginning of 2003. In Montenegro the evaluation process has gone at a slower pace, with the national report still to be finalised.

The first official participation of the Yugoslav Delegation went ahead “without any particular noise about it”, the Delegation acting like any other ordinary member which had the right to vote. The Yugoslav Delegation included three representatives from Serbia and one from Montenegro, all of them making decisions on behalf of their own republic. When asked if this division within the Yugoslav delegation did not impede its participation in the Committee, Milena Dragicevic-Sesic pointed out that the situation was neither new nor difficult to deal with. Even in the former Yugoslavia, culture was never a federal responsibility and the republics were fully in charge of cultural matters. In addition, Yugoslavia is not the only state with a ‘split’ or ‘shared’ delegation: for example, Belgium and Bosnia and Herzegovina have separate representation for each community/republic in their national delegations. Milena however remarked that, unless Montenegro became more active in representing itself, its opinions and its interests, then the views of Serbia might be taken as being those of Yugoslavia.

According to Milena, this recognition of Yugoslavia, and its equal participation in the Steering Committee for Culture, as well as in other bodies of the Council of Europe, will bring a lot to the Yugoslav cultural sector. The two republics will be able to participate as equal members in some of the programmes and projects developed in the cultural field by the Council of Europe. Serbia has already identified its priority areas. The key programmes for Serbia are those which enable the development of regional co-operation and mediation between Balkan countries, with the accent on a new interpretation of history (overcoming stereotypes, prejudices etc.).

Having identified these as priority areas, Serbia declared its interest in the following programmes:

· Cultural Diversity /Cultural citizenship and cultural governance
· Training; co-operation with cultural networks
· The Compendium of cultural policies
· Cultural Routes
· MOSAIC (which is one of the few programmes in whose
activities Serbia had already been participating)
· Intercultural Dialogue and Conflict Prevention

Another programme of interest to Serbia is the integrated programme ‘Making democratic institutions wor’, which, although not specifically addressing the cultural sector, will undoubtedly contribute to an improvement of policymaking and public administration in the cultural field.

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Cultural Policy Education Group (CPEG)