BELGRADE – Claske Vos, a postdoctoral researcher at ACCESS EUROPE and Lecturer European Studies at the Humanities Faculty of the University of Amsterdam, delivered a lecture on Cultural Investments in EU Integration, on Thursday, 21 July, at the EU Info Centre. The lecture raised awareness of the numerous ways European Union is investing in candidate countries and this time an emphasis was put on culture. Ms. Vos conducted a research on why and how EU invests in culture and what it should mean for a candidate country like Serbia.
While answering the question – Why investing in culture? – Ms. Vos referred to the transversal nature of it, of culture not being isolated but linked to other fields (reconciliation, regional cooperation, social cohesion, etc.). European Union has noticed the significance of investing in culture and used several funded initiatives for the aforementioned purposes. Creative Europe is just one of them – the European Commission’s framework programme that supports culture and audiovisual sectors.
With regards to the Serbian example, she noted that there would be many opportunities for Serbia to participate in cultural programmes if the country was more open to accede to many cultural organizations abroad. What Serbia actually lacks are financial resources, knowledgeable and skilled personnel and the overall knowledge of complex procedures and strict funding criteria.