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In the field of culture, the Latvian Presidency intends to raise awareness of the positive effects that the cultural and creative sectors can provide to other sectors in terms of innovation, economic sustainability and social inclusion.
The Minister underlined that the Latvian Presidency is looking for ways to encourage synergies between culture, creative industries and other sectors such as economy, technologies, research, education, heritage and social policies. The Presidency attaches importance to policy approaches that stimulate interaction between cultural heritage, contemporary architecture and design in creating high quality living-space.
As to the audiovisual field, the Minister emphasized the need to strengthen the European audiovisual media market so that it can respond to the current challenges such as the fast pace of technology progress, increasing global competition, changing consumer habits and the perceived threat to media pluralism in the current geopolitical context.
The Minister underlined the importance of solidarity in defending freedom of expression and the rights of artists to create freely. She referred to the joint statement issued by the Ministers for Culture from all 28 Member States of the European Union on January 11 in response to the tragic events at the editorial office of Charlie Hebdo in Paris on 7 January. The statement was the initiative of the Latvian Presidency and the Latvian Minister for Culture Ms Dace Melbārde.
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Within the framework of the Latvian Presidency three conferences will be held in Riga in collaboration with the European Commission: "Strengthening the European Audiovisual Media Market – for the Development of the European Identity" (9 and 10 March), "Cultural and Creative Crossovers: partnering culture with other sectors to maximize creativity, growth and social innovation" (11 and 12 March) and "Heritage, contemporary architecture and design in interaction" (12 and 13 March).
The conferences will take place in Riga during the Annual Creativity Action Week, which is recognized as the best practice in cross-sectoral collaboration.
