On Thursday 3 and Friday 4 September 2015, the Luxembourg Ministry of Culture will hold a conference in Echternach's Trifolion on the theme "Culture and Development: Towards a more Strategic Approach to Cultural Policies in the External Relations of the EU".

Minister of Culture Maggy Nagel will be in attendance at the conference, as well as around thirty experts, including representative of the European Commission and the European External Action Service, UNESCO, the Council of Europe, national co-operation structures and cultural institutes.

The conference will aim to outline the ways in which culture and development interact, as a means of displaying the links between this and the broader context of culture in external relations and the questions of coherence between policies. This topic has previously been broached by Minister Nagel at the Expo2015 in Milan and by the Bibliothèque Nationale de Luxembourg's (BnL) presence at the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA).

The Ministry of Culture reported that whilst culture represents a facet of the 2007 Communication on the European Agenda for Culture, as well as the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union, the mainstream integration of cultural and creative sectors in other policies remains a challenge. It is therefore the coordination and coherence of culture that require further discussion and focus.

The conference will touch on several key questions, including the potential impact and contribution of culture on the future implementation of sustainable development goals (SDGs) of the UN; the contribution of culture to the success and sustainability of development projects in other sectors; and the benefits of greater coherence between culture and development in the EU's external relations.

Guest speakers will include Minister for Cooperation and Humanitarian Action, Romain Schneider; European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Youth and Sport, Tibor Navracsics; President of the Committee on Culture and Education of the European Parliament, Silvia Costa; Minister of Culture of Cape Verde, Mário Lúcio Matias de Sousa Mendes; Secretary of State for Culture of Portugal, Jorge Barreto Xavier; MEP Chalres Goerens; and MP in the House of Deputies, Marc Angel.

 

Photo by Sarah Graham (Minister of Culture, Maggy Nagel)