Cultural exception

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Cultural exception (French: Exception culturelle ) was originally a law passed in France in 1993 after consultation with the EU Commission , which guarantees government agencies a great deal of freedom in supporting local producers, directors and film sites. With regard to the type, scope and intention to pursue goals, the relevant body does not have to be accountable to the European Union or to filmmakers and cultural workers who do not or hardly receive state support.

Based on the French law standard is the Cultural Exception (officially Cultural exception clause or cultural exception clause ) since 1995, a fixed term in the international (trade) law and cultural events after the integral part of provision of fundamentally reformed General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (English -General on Agreement Tariffs and Trade - GATT) .

The so-called cultural exception is currently being discussed at European level in the course of the negotiations on the transatlantic free trade agreement TTIP .

Teleology of the French legal norm

The law states that cultural products must not be treated as profane commercial goods. Cultural goods and services have a special, double character: on the one hand, they are economic goods and, on the other hand, bearers of cultural identity and cultural values ​​and are therefore under state protection , special regulations and funding interests in relation to foreign substitutes .

Previous activities

1994 NAFTA

At the urging of Canada, in 1994 - in the last round of negotiations before ratification - the so-called culture exception clause was included in the North American Free Trade Agreement ( NAFTA ).

1995 MAY

From 1995 the member states of the OECD were negotiating an investment agreement which , in addition to being universally valid among the member states, also aimed at an open door for newly industrialized countries wishing to join. However, the negotiations had to be broken off in the draft phase in 1998 due to incompatible positions.

The main unresolved issues were:

  • The demarcation of liberalization: Above all, the omission of the most-favored nation clause and the establishment of a far-reaching cultural exception clause ,
  • international arbitration ( investor protection clause ) and
  • binding standards for occupational safety and environmental protection

Cultural exception in TTIP

starting point

In 2013, numerous cultural workers and lovers saw the cultural diversity in Europe at risk as a result of the Transatlantic Free Trade Agreement (TTIP) . Before the start of the negotiations, critics pointed out the existing risks and called for a cultural exception at European level analogous to the French legal norm or the complete non-inclusion of the field of cultural education and art in the contract. Ver.di, for example, asked the German government in an open letter in May 2013 that “the decision of the EU [meant the EU Parliament] not to negotiate audiovisual services as a carrier of cultural diversity [...] must also [...] endure ] such as the UNESCO Convention for the Protection of the Diversity of Culture. ”A corresponding cultural exception for audiovisual and other media , as the EU had always enforced in its numerous bilateral free trade agreements negotiated in the past according to a template of a free trade regulation of the World Trade Organization namely avoided under pressure from the US administration.

EU decisions

Above all, France pushed for a unified position of the EU, which should counteract the fears of the European cultural industry, which feared serious competitive disadvantages compared to the financially strong Hollywood competition. On June 14, 2013, the Council of the European Union adopted a binding declaration of intent for the cultural exception. The EU Parliament had already passed a resolution about three weeks earlier .

  • Voting result of the parliamentary resolution: 381 votes in favor, 191 against with 17 abstentions
  • Wording of the parliamentary decision: "The European Parliament considers it essential that the EU and its Member States preserve the possibility of maintaining and developing their cultural and audiovisual policies within the framework of their acquis on legislation, standards and conventions; that the exclusion of services with cultural or audiovisual content, including online, is clearly stated in the negotiating mandate. "

The resolutions formulated a uniform EU position and thus became part of the negotiating mandate of the European Commission , which is entrusted with the negotiations on the European side. Since the negotiations are largely conducted in secret and even the mandate of the EU Commission has not yet been made public in its entirety, the specific form of this point is still unclear.

Decision criticism

The film critic Hanns-Georg Rodek, for example, praised the resolutions in the world : “Including culture in the free trade agreement would have opened doors that one would rather not look behind. The book prices would suddenly a barrier to competition, any Hollywood producer would get access to the German film funding, and the funding of a public service broadcasting would be ostracized as an impermissible subsidy culture is more than a commodity "!

"The Association of German Scriptwriters is also very pleased that the European Parliament has decided on an exception for the culture and media sector in its vote today for the negotiating mandate of the EU for the EU-USA free trade agreement (Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership TTIP)."

Web links

literature

  • Philippe Poirrier, Lippe Poirrier. Art et pouvoir de 1848 à nos jours , Cndp, 2006. (French)
  • Serge Regourd, L'exception culturelle , Paris, Puf, 2004. (French)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Film funding in France: Attack on the "cultural exception" , Der Spiegel , January 11, 2002, last accessed on October 25, 2014
  2. ↑ a b Directors demand the preservation of the culture exception clause , Bundesverband Regie , April 20, last accessed on October 25, 2014
  3. ↑ A cultural exception is indispensable in the planned free trade agreement between the EU and the USA ( memento of the original from October 20, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , German Cultural Council , May 6th. 2013, last accessed October 25, 2014 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.kulturrat.de
  4. ^ The "Trade and Culture" Issue, at the Origin of the Convention on the Protection and the Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions1 . FICDC. Archived from the original on October 26, 2014. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved February 23, 2012. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.cdc-ccd.org
  5. ↑ International. New round of liberalization in EU trade policy. Negotiated in secret: TTIP and TiSA , ver.di , July 11, 2014, last accessed on October 25, 2014
  6. ↑ Secretly negotiated: TTIP and TiSA , Producer Alliance , April 22, 2013, last accessed on October 25, 2014
  7. ↑ EU-USA free trade agreement: Establish cultural exception , French Embassy in Germany , April 23, 2013, last accessed on October 25, 2014
  8. ↑ a b Association of German Scriptwriters on the resolution of the European Parliament on the cultural exception , Association of German Scriptwriters , 25 May. 2013, last accessed October 25, 2014
  9. ↑ Resolution of the European Parliament of 23 May 2013 on the negotiations between the EU and the United States of America on a trade and investment agreement (2013/2558 (RSP)) , EU Parliament , Strasbourg, 23 May. 2013, last accessed October 25, 2014
  10. ↑ TTIP: Council of Ministers decides on “cultural exception” , Producers Alliance , June 17, 2013, last accessed on October 25, 2014