21/10/2005

It has been a first and clear victory, but there is still a battle to be fought. “Cultural Diversity” was adopted yesterday, Thursday, October 20th, in the general plenary session in Paris by majority of votes: 148 to 2(US & Israel), with 4 abstentions (Australia, Liberia, Nicaragua and Honduras). A signature for a blank document towards long-term public funding for cultural goods and services, included in the section related to cinema and media, an imprimatur to Europe’s quota policies in order to halt the massive invasion of Hollywood productions.

The US, which just re-entered UNESCO in 2003 through George Bush’s initiative, has been unable to support a judicial text which conflicts with its commercial interests. Up until now the nations in the world depended on the exclusive decisions taken by the WTO, who only allowed “temporary exemptions” to the law of free exchange.

Here is the first weakness: Article 20 stipulates that the UNESCO Convention is judicial in nature “equivalent to all existing international instruments”, therefore equivalent to the WTO. It’s logical, but the thing here is to adjust one rule to the other, between two non consensual jurisdictions. The US barrier in both of them will seemingly cause future difficulties.
Here is the second weakness: in order for it to be applied, cultural diversity should by ratified by at least 30 countries and included in their parliamentary assemblies. There is no due date for its ratification, which allows the US to continue with their “domino strategy” (agree on the funding in a commercial sector in exchange for the free introduction of the big films and TV series). Many countries are already involved in this merchandising. The EU even spoke as one individual voice in the debates in Paris. No one knows what will happen in each parliamentary assembly, since the European countries are divided on this issue.

(Translated from French)