EU Cultural Diplomacy: Time to define strategies, means and complementarity with Member States

On the 23rd of May 2017, the Council of the European Union adopted conclusions on Culture in the European Union's external relations, by welcoming the Joint Communication Towards an EU strategy for international cultural relations presented by the European Commission in June 2016. Besides calling for a bottom-up perspective including cultural actors – and based on the promotion of cultural diversity – the conclusions envisage the establishment of a working group to design an integrated EU strategic approach, bringing together all the relevant policies and players. Complementarity with Member States and their cultural institutes is re-affirmed as a vital component of this process, but its content and modalities mostly remain to be defined.