KNOWLEDGE GATHERING
We have developed a ‘reflect, recommend, lobby and act' approach to dealing with major European cultural issues. Our aim is to spark public debate and influence policymakers. The first ECF Reflection Group was convened in 2002, two years before the Enlargement of the European Union, with the aim of reflecting on the broad topic of `Europe as a cultural project´. The reflection process has continued since then, although with a more tightly focused agenda and shorter time-frame.
In spring and summer 2007, a reflection process focusing on the EU's eastern borders will be convened: The ECF, together with the German Marshall for the United States (GMF) is inviting Cultural Actors of Change in Belarus, Ukraine and Moldova to share their knowledge. In the first phase of the process, the East European Reflection Group will map individual forces and dynamics in the cultural field that have already contributed or have the potential to contribute to societal changes. Change in this context is understood as processes contributing positively to democratization, modernization and Europeanization in the countries under analysis.
In July 2006, the ECF has launched the Mediterranean Reflection Group. The group explores the political and artistic challenges of cooperative projects among practitioners from Europe, Turkey, the Middle East and North Africa.
In 2005 we invited a number of cultural experts - most of them representatives of a new generation of artists that has emerged in the Balkans following years of devastating conflict - to form a Balkan Reflection Group.
The Group met twice to consider the part played by the contemporary arts before and during the crises in the Balkans, and to explore the potential of the arts to bring reconciliation and progress.
A series of proposed measures were unveiled at a conference in the Hague involving artists, policymakers and civil society activists from the region and elsewhere. We are in the process of making these recommendations a reality.
Several essays were commissioned with the aim of investigating the personal experiences of members of the group in more depth.
Strong excerpts of these essays were compiled in the publication 'The Heart of the Matter', which was published in 2006.
POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS
The recommendations made by the Balkan Reflection Group, at the conference `The Heart of the Matter´in the Hague (1 December 2005), seek to bring the Balkans out of the shadows of their stigmatising role as ‘Europe's Other', placing them instead firmly on the path towards peaceful co-existence and European integration.
Others have attempted to do the same, notably the International Commission on the Balkans, but none has given culture its due in this process.
The Group's proposed measures include strengthening the infrastructure of the independent cultural sector in the region, introducing a smart visa policy to assist artists and cultural practitioners in working together across borders, and providing adequate and accessible financial support schemes for cultural cooperation.
PRACTICAL TOOLS
We invest in these reflection processes always with a view to realising practical outcomes of benefit to the cultural sector and society generally. One such outcome of the Balkan reflection process is the establishment of a new financial instrument called the Balkan Incentive Fund for Culture. This will provide funds for cultural initiatives until such time as the Western Balkans have full access to EU funding. The Fund is an initiative of the ECF, the Dutch development organisation Hivos and the Open Society Institute.