Francia es la excepción... cultural
París se queda sola en su amenaza de vetar la negociación comercial entre Europa y EE UU si Bruselas no excluye las producciones audiovisuales de las conversaciones
Luis Doncel / Miguel Mora Bruselas / París 13 JUN 2013 - 22:18 CET
France is the exception ... cultural
Paris is left alone in his threat to veto the trade negotiations between the U.S. and Europe if Brussels does not exclude audiovisual productions of talks
Luis Doncel / Miguel Mora Brussels / Paris 13 JUN 2013 - 22:18 CET
France, against all. Or against almost everyone. The fight for the cultural exception threatens to clog the free trade agreement that the United States and the European Union want to start trading next week. The stakes are very serious. Paris shakes the bogey of veto if it achieves its goal: encapsulate everything related to the audiovisual sector to exclude it from the talks between Brussels and Washington. It is unclear how far the cracking. The French Government faces all great, with Germany and the UK in the lead, and the European Commission.
A national flag
Since the conquest of the presidency of the Republic François Mitterrand in 1981, France has made its banner cultural exception priority with regard to the policy on the arts. The motto is simple: a film is not the same as a shoe and a disk is not the same as a cucumber. The former Minister of Culture Jack Lang socialist was the main advocate of the cultural exception: leave cultural property trade beyond negotiation. Only Belgium, Greece and Hungary, and indirectly Poland and Italy, supported by the EU within France in the battle that is being waged today in Luxembourg.
A manifesto supported by major filmmakers of the Old Continent intentions reported this week in Brussels to include audiovisual productions in trade negotiations with the U.S..
The European Parliament voted against the inclusion.
President François Hollande, as did their predecessors, must demonstrate to its citizens to fight to the death to defend their cultural industry against the crushing power of Hollywood. European sources suggest that it is in fact a symbolic battle, because each country could continue subsidizing his films after signing a free trade agreement with the United States.
But in politics symbols matter. And much more to a leader like Hollande, with so many home fronts. "We'll go so far as to use the political veto, is our identity and our struggle", shot on Wednesday in the National Assembly French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault. It is hard to imagine that the Socialist government will accept the humiliation of eat his words.
Trade ministers of the EU in Luxembourg today will be to try to bring up the basis on which the EU will start negotiations with Washington. At the meeting, Paris will have very few allies and little weight. Belgium, Greece and Hungary are now those who align with their thesis.
Spain swim between two waters. On the one hand, the Government is keen that the free trade agreement succeed. Just yesterday the Secretaries of State of Commerce Spain and the UK signed a joint letter acknowledging that both the U.S. and Europe are afraid. "But these fears should not prevent us to talk about all relevant sectors. To achieve the greatest benefit, we must leave our interests on the back burner, "added the letter in a clear shot at the French waterline. But at the same time, the last thing you want to Mariano Rajoy and his team is alienating not only with his first partner, but also with a possible future ally in European battles.
If they do not agree, a new looming train wreck Paris with Berlin and London, who have already made it known that there are a score of countries that do not care about the cultural exception and French audiovisual sector.
The funny thing is that it is not even clear that France has the legal possibility of the veto. In the Commission and the Council does not agree. European sources say the country who wants to use the veto is that which shall demonstrate that unanimity is required to take the negotiating mandate. If you dare to take the step, not the first time. France has experience in putting impediments to a trade agreement with the U.S. invoking the cultural exception. It happened in the late nineties, during cohabitation of conservative President Jacques Chirac and Prime Minister Lionel Jospin Socialist.
Although the Commission has attempted to propose alternatives, the Elysee has refused to accept them. Brussels assures whoever hear that negotiations with the U.S. will not play what they call "the three red lines". The first aspect would be shielded mechanisms of Member States and the EU itself to promote movies, songs and European works. Insured would also matter what any audiovisual sector subsidies and the ability to adapt legislation to the evolving digital media to "preserve European cultural diversity".
"The cultural exception is not negotiable", summarized the European Commission President, José Manuel Barroso. But film professionals are wary of these beautiful words. "Mr Barroso is a danger," he said this week in Strasbourg Costa-Gavras. The director of films like Z or The confession had come to the seat of the European Parliament to present the brief in defense of European culture signed by 7,000 professionals, including directors such as Pedro Almodóvar, Michael Hanecke or the Dardennes.
The common argument in the UK and Germany, the countries that put pressure on France, is that if you leave out the audiovisual, Americans could use it as a pretext not to liberalize some sectors of interest to Europe, such as air transport sector or market public.
The hypothetical French veto would not remove the possibility that the U.S. and Europe finally reach an agreement, but it does slow down the process. The summit of European leaders to be held on 27 and 28 June in that case would have to deal with unclogging the negotiating process. Euro-American talks be delayed, right now they seem more important than ever for an EU that has sold the FTA as one of the master keys to re-grow and leave behind the nightmare of the crisis.
Hollande and Ayrault themselves have made it clear that they favor the free trade agreement is signed because an increase in U.S. trade with benefit its export sector, which desperately needs good news. Today will be a good chance to prove it.
