22/01/2009 - The first Czech presidency of the Council presented the Czech priorities in the cultural and audio-visual field. Only 20 lines of the programme concern the field and most of the attention is placed on education…

On January 1, the Czech Republic took on for the first time the rotating presidency of the EU. On January 19, Czech Minister of Education Ondřej Liška and Minister of Culture Václav Jehlička presented the Czech priorities in the area of culture and audiovisual product to the Culture Commission of the European Parliament.

Actually, there are only 20 lines dedicated to culture and the audiovisual in the programme of the Czech presidency. In terms of education, on which most of the attention is placed, the Czechs propose to emerge from the crisis and reinforce social cohesion by asking for greater flexibility towards the needs of the private sector and industry, and to align the aims of education and training with those of the business world.

In terms of audiovisual policy, the Presidency will only consolidate currently implemented legislation and policy, placing greater attention on sensitizing and educating citizens on piracy and commercial communications. To this end, a conference will be held in March in Prague, entitled "Audiovisual and Copyright: The Responsibilities of Suppliers and Users of Content".

Reception of the Audiovisual Media Services Directive, increasingly greater differences between Member States in dealing with advertising and product placement, and media education are some of the subjects that will be discussed at the conference.

Minister Jehlička is also looking to promote an initiative of audiovisual cooperation with third countries, but no such conference has been announced yet.