EU and Brazil step up cooperation in education and culture

This collaboration focus on existing and future cultural cooperation, such as jointly organised seminars and events linked to the priorities identified in the Joint Declaration and the Joint Programme on Culture.

These priorities include:

• Policies to create a favourable environment for the cultural and creative economy;
• Improving cooperation and exchanges between the EU and Brazil, including audiovisual co-productions;
• Sharing professional expertise on the preservation of cultural and natural heritage, including landscapes, fostering its promotion;
• The promotion and implementation of the 2005 UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions.

The European Commission and Brazil are to step up joint cooperation on cultural issues. Androulla Vassiliou, European Commissioner for Education, Culture, mulingualism and Youth, and Ana de Hollanda, Minister of State of Culture of Brazil, signed, on October 4th, a four-year joint action plan focusing on cultural diversity, cultural heritage and the development of a sustainable cultural and creative economy. Culture is a boom area for the European economy, with studies showing that it contributes 4.5% to Europe's GDP and provides jobs for 8.5 million people. Brazil also has a vibrant cultural and heritage sector: the country has 11 sites on the UNESCO World Heritage List, including the historic towns of Ouro Preto, Olinda and Salvador de Bahia, which attract thousands of European and other tourists every year.

Commissioner Vassiliou and Minister Ana de Hollanda signed the new 'Joint Programme on Culture', which runs until the end of 2014, in the margins of the EU-Brazil summit, which represents a further positive step in EU-Brazil economic relations (IP/11/1138– MEMO/11/651). The accord will set in train a series of initiatives aimed at enhancing policy exchanges, in particular linked to the implementation of the UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, to which the EU is a party in addition to individual Member States.

In the Summit Joint Statement parties emphasized the crucial role academic cooperation and mobility play to promote growth and jobs. They decided to enhance EU-Brazil dialogue and cooperation in higher education and research, building on existing policy instruments and programmes, such as the EU's Erasmus Mundus and Marie Curie programmes, and Brazil’s “Science without Borders” mobility scheme. The EU and Brazil also acknowledged their common cultural heritage and reaffirmed their commitment to foster cooperation on culture to the benefit of their citizen. At the margins of the Summit, Commissioner Vassiliou signed a Joint Programme on Culture with her counterpart Minister de Hollanda, focusing the next 4 years of cooperation on cultural diversity, cultural heritage and the development of a sustainable cultural and creative economy. A first culture roundtable will take place on 5 October in the presence of both the Commissioner and Minister de Hollanda.