Towards a multi-level strategy for EU external cultural relations
Bringing Cities on Board
In their publication, Hannah Abdullah (Barcelona Centre for International Affairs) and Jeremie Molho (European University Institute) aim to demonstrate the potential of European cities for achieving the objectives of the EU strategy for international cultural relations by proposing a revised multilevel approach.
“European cities play a major role in the development of cultural ties across borders and they have increasingly established themselves as autonomous international cultural policy actors. Along with the rise of a multi-actor and multilevel diplomatic arena, cities and other sub-national governments have acquired an increasingly important role”.
The paper formulates some key recommendations for the transition towards a multilevel EU cultural diplomacy:
- Support city networking on cultural cooperation
- Partner with European and global city networks that have made international cultural cooperation a priority
- Expand the European Capital of Culture (ECC) programme to include non-European cities
- Involve the representations of local governments in Brussels in the future formulation and implementation of the EU cultural diplomacy strategy
- Map practices of European cities in the field of international cultural relations
Access the full publication here.
Robert Schuman Centre | European University Institute | January 2020