Cultural impact assessment

A cultural impact assessment is a process used to examine political decisions (in particular legislation, approvals of large-scale projects) with regard to negative effects on culture . Above all, it is a catchphrase that is used both in the context of the European Union and German federal cultural policy, and occasionally in German federal states and Austrian and Swiss municipalities.

Historically, the term “cultural impact assessment ” goes back to the better known “ environmental impact assessment ”. It was probably first used in the European context at the beginning of the 1990s. In the cultural-political context of the Federal Republic of Germany, it is first documented by Julian Nida-Rümelin from 2002.

European Union

For the first time there was talk of a “cultural impact assessment” in connection with the Maastricht Treaty , which for the first time empowered the then European Community in a new Article 128 of the EC Treaty to act in cultural policy. Paragraph 4 read: “The Community takes cultural aspects into account in its activities on the basis of other provisions of this treaty.” Today, the clause slightly modified by the Treaty of Amsterdam and the Treaty of Lisbon can be found in Art. 167 TFEU .

prehistory

Before the Maastricht Treaty, the EC, still appropriately called the European Economic Community (EEC), was perceived as hostile to culture because it only saw commercial goods or services in cultural services in the context of the creation of a European internal market for whose free movement it was harmonizing has been. The book price represents the still controversial best-known example.

In the EEC Treaty of 1958, the morpheme “culture” appeared only once in the French and English versions, namely in the “cultural development” of non-European areas (Art. 131 (3) EEC Treaty).

The wording of today's Art. 167 (4) TFEU may ultimately go back to a suggestion by Andreas Johannes Wiesand in an expert report for the German Foreign Office on cultural policy in the European context (1982), in which he proposed that the organs of the EEC be replaced by a supplementary clause of the To oblige the EEC to "pay attention to the specific nature of the cultural and media sector (including the 'cultural industry' ') in its policy and to pay particular attention to the cultural characteristics of the member countries and sub-regions within the community ".

Present meaning

The consequences of today's Art. 167 (4) TFEU were unclear from the start. Cultural associations hoped for a similar mechanism of political self-regulation with regard to culture as it developed with regard to the environment. In 1996 the Commission of the European Communities published a first report on the consideration of cultural aspects in the activities of the European Community , which was received with disappointment by the cultural associations as well as by the EC Council of Ministers due to a lack of new knowledge or concepts.

Despite further assurances by the European Commission, this “first report” has remained so far and cultural policy still has a rather marginal role compared to EU policies. The expectations associated with the so-called culture compatibility clause (Art. 167 Para. 4 TFEU) of the founding treaties and the word "cultural compatibility assessment" could already be met today by the so-called "integrated impact assessment" of the EU Commission, within its review program culture as the " social consequences ”of secondary concern has so far received relatively little attention.

The low practical significance is also due to the fact that the legal content of the contractual clause is difficult to grasp. Today it is seen as an expression of the subsidiarity principle , loyalty to the Union or, more and more often, a special expression of the principle of proportionality applicable in the EU both towards European citizens and between the EU and the member states .

Federal Republic of Germany

In the context of Federal Republican cultural policy, the expression “cultural impact assessment” became prominent from 2002 onwards through the coalition agreement between the SPD and Bündnis'90 / Die Grünen to form the federal government Schröder II . It said that one focus would remain “the further improvement of the legal framework for art and culture. This includes taking greater account of the cultural dimension of federal legislation and, if necessary, of major planning projects (cultural impact assessment) ”.

This item on the program met with a great response in German cultural policy and as a result, cultural politicians close to the coalition declared every successful cultural policy engagement of the then Federal Commissioner for Culture and Media , Christina Weiss , for example on the question of the VAT rate for works of art, to be a successful application of the cultural impact assessment . In fact, the main aim was to politically raise the status of the Minister of State for Culture. After her authority and the cultural-political lobby were unable to establish the standard participation of the Minister of State for Culture in the framework of the cabinet vote in the GGO , “cultural impact assessment” was declared only a (successful) awareness-raising word.

The question of whether the “cultural impact assessment”, as it was understood by the red-green coalition, was news at federal level was answered in detail to a small question from the CDU / CSU parliamentary group. Today the term “cultural impact assessment” is rarely spoken of. However, it is considered to be well-established government practice.

States and municipalities

In some federal states and municipalities in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, the term “cultural impact assessment” was adopted in order to describe the activities of the cultural department in each case or to define a program that specifically values ​​culture.

literature

• Jörg Michael Schindler: Cultural Policy and Law 3.0 - From the cultural impact assessment to the culture-related impact assessment. ARCult, Bonn 2011, ISBN 978-3-930395-87-3 .

Web links

• The current term of the Scientific Service of the German Bundestag from January 31, 2003 on the cultural impact assessment (PDF file; 11 kB).

Individual evidence

1. ^ Gregor Dolak: Cities of Culture. EDUCATE your Senate . In: FOCUS . No. April 18 , 2002 ( focus.de [accessed November 15, 2011]).
2. ↑ Cf. Andreas Johannes Wiesand: Art without Borders - Cultural Identity and Freedom of Movement in Europe (published by the Federal Ministry of the Interior), Cologne 1987, p. 123.
3. ↑ First report on the consideration of cultural aspects in the activities of the European Community (PDF; 9 MB)
4. ↑ See the website of the EU Commission on the impact assessment in the EU ( Memento of the original dated February 9, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ( engl. ). 
5. ↑ In summary, see Jörg Michael Schindler, Kulturpolitik und Recht 3.0 - From the cultural impact assessment to the culture-related impact assessment , ARCult, Bonn 2011, p. 75 ff.
6. ↑ SPD, Bündnis'90 / Die Grünen: Coalition Agreement 2002-2006 . Berlin 2002, p. 69 ( sustainability.info [PDF; 700 kB ; accessed on August 6, 2017]).
7. ↑ Answer of the Federal Government to the Small Inquiry on the Cultural Impact Assessment, BT-Drs. 15/2729 (from March 19, 2004, PDF file: 89 kB)
8. ↑ See the Kulturkompass - Guide to Cultural Development in Saxony (published by the Saxon State Ministry for Science and Art ( Memento of the original from November 10, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original - and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this note (PDF file; 0.4 MB). 
9. ↑ See the cultural development plan of the city of Linz (A) .