EU Partecipation in the UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions: Some Constitutional Remarks

Culture, in its prescriptive definition, is crucial concept for building a peacefuland open Europe as envisaged in the EC and EU Treaties, as well as in theConstitutional Treaty. For this reason, just after the third phase ofintergovernmental negotiations that took place from 25 May to 4 June 2005, andwith regard to the complexity and changing dimensions of this issue, it isimportant to underscore the significance of cultural diversity for Europeanpolity. More precisely, it seems useful to consider more deeply what is happeningin the UNESCO seat in the context the EU/EC as a “cultural democracy” throughanalysis of the present juridical status of competence within the Europeansystem in the cultural field. First, however, special attention should be paid tothis Convention because it seems to represent an important step towards unifiedinternational action, also within the sensitive and peculiar field of culture. Aftera critical overview, this article focuses on the participation of the EU/EC in thisnegotiation, regarding it as a paradigmatic example of European action in aninternational forum and, at the same time, as a factor for the restructuring ofcompetences within the European Community/Union system. The paper arguesthat the substantial re-allocation of competences in the cultural field emergingduring these negotiations points towards a more pluralistic shape of the EU/EC,and can easily represent a new trend in cultural action, characterized by thedialectical tension between cultural regulation and freedom of culture.