MAIN ACTIVITIES OF THE EUROPEAN UNION IN THE SPHERE OF CULTURE AND THEIR HIERARCHY
Authors:   Institute of Europe, Russian Academy of Sciences (Moscow, Russian Federation), Vodopiyanova Elena V. , Korobeynikova Larisa A. ,   Tomsk State University (Tomsk, Russian Federation)
Published: December 2020

Based on the analysis of official documents of the European Union, the article considers the lat-est trends in determining the main directions of the EU's activities in the field of cultural policy. It is established that despite the absolute importance and attention to the classical European cultural herit-age, the information age makes significant adjustments to management paradigms that today require innovation even in the most traditional areas. It is shown that the heritage of classical culture today exists and develops as a contradictory unity of traditional and innovative, and the role of the latter is steadily growing, obeying the logic of the development of information society. In the process of achieving these goals, economic benefits be-come inseparable from social benefits, primarily aimed at improving the quality of life. The author argues that the phenomenon of heritage, which is the Foundation of the EU's cultural policy, is still a system-forming one, but the post-industrial society certainly makes adjustments to the approaches that have been established for decades. And today, the European Union's activities in the field of cultural policy are no longer possible outside of digitalization. The latter, on the one hand, appears as a completely Autonomous entity, but in relation to cultural heritage, it undoubtedly acts as a means for preserving and expanding the latter in the context of information realities. The scale of the use of digital processes to optimize the functioning of the European classicist heritage is currently so large that there is every reason to assert that the basic direction of the European Union's cultural policy has been differentiated into heritage as such and its digitalization. The study reveals that in the process of its non-existence in the space of cultural heritage, digital-ization itself has acquired new functions, becoming a kind of intermediary between the presentation of new forms of vision of European classics and modern culture in its innovative and industrial hyposta-ses. Digitalization equalizes and unites heritage and cultural industries on a new level, as well as pro-moting modern creativity and stimulating innovation in this area. The legacy of classical culture today exists and develops as a contradictory unity of traditional and innovative, and the role of the latter is steadily growing, obeying the logic of the development of information society. It is established that if today in the official documents of the European Union heritage and digi-talization are postulated as the main directions of the cultural policy of the Association, then there are good reasons to believe that in the future, initiatives to promote the dynamics of cultural industries and expand innovations in the field of culture will take their proper place in the system of basic manage-ment actions of the EU. In conclusion, the author emphasizes that this will in no way detract from the role and place of traditional European cultural heritage, but will only expand the space of its potential possibilities.