The Culture Programme 2007-2013 serves as the framework for EU's cultural co-operation. This is a five-year programme that started in 2007 and has a budget of 400 million EUR. Norway participates through the EEA Agreement, just as we took part in the previous programmes, Culture 2000, which followed, Kaleidoscope for artistic and cultural creation, Ariane for books and reading, including translation, and Rafaël for cultural heritage.
The new framework programme covers all the activities of the old programmes in a non-sectoral approach and aims at promoting the transnational mobility of people working in the cultural sector; encouraging the transnational circulation of works and cultural and artistic products and enhancing intercultural dialogue in Europe.
Information on the Culture Programme can be found on the DG Education and Culture website. A Norwegian culture contact point (CCP) for the programme has been established at the Art Council Norway.
The Culture Programme supports European cultural cooperation projects, offers operational grants to European cultural networks, co-funds the European Capitals of Culture and awards European excellence through its cultural prizes in architecture, cultural heritage, popular music and literature. Bergen and Stavanger have been designated European Capitals of Culture in 2000 and 2008, respectively.
Various activities are also going on in the audiovisual field. The Media II programme is in its last year, and a new programme, Media Plus, is under discussion. The Media II programme focuses on three priority areas: training, the development of production projects and the transnational distribution of European films and TV programmes. The EEA Agreement also provides the regulatory framework for the audiovisual sector. The Television without Frontiers Directive has been implemented in Norway, and within the EFTA/EEA structure we participate in the discussions on and follow-up of the Green Paper on Convergence of the Telecommunications, Media and Information Technology Sectors, and the Implications for Regulation. Information on the EFTA/EEA structure can be found on the EFTA Secretariat's website.
Acting counsellor on education at the mission, Hanna Marit Jahr, can be contacted with questions concerning culture, e-mail hmj@mfa.no, phone: +32 (0) 2 238 74 74.
(Updated January 2010)