"Europe needs culture" says Barroso

30 November 2006

Speaking in Berlin on 17 November at the 'A soul for Europe' Conference, Commission President José Manuel Barroso said:

"Some people tell me that a President of the European Commission should not speak about culture, an area where the main competence remains at the national and regional level. I disagree. The European Commission by definition is the institution par excellence to represent the European interest, and I find it impossible not to talk about something so central to Europe as culture and its meaning for us. So I am determined to speak up for, and highlight, the cultural dimension of Europe. And this conference is an excellent occasion to do so.

My thoughts turned to this gathering when I heard that Anna Politovskaïa had been assassinated. The murder of this brave journalist is just one example of an increasing number of challenges to European values. Values like freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and tolerance. So my intention today in Berlin, the heart of Europe, is to issue a wake-up call in the defence and preservation of our values. We need to defend the European spirit of freedom.

With world events unfolding as they are, I feel that it is our duty, as politicians but also as individuals, to say today that the European values which bind together our continent and our common project - freedom, humanism and tolerance - are being challenged. I should also make it clear to you all, as movers and actors in the world of culture, that, in the defence of its values and in the fight for its values, Europe needs you!

Europe needs culture since culture, without any doubt, contributes to its well-being, its greater welfare and its social cohesion. But, beyond that, Europe needs culture in order to proclaim, at this time of instability, that our values are not negotiable."

Click here to read the rest of his speech.