As the presiding country, Finland considers it important that creativity is supported both at Community level and in the Member States. Investments in culture and creativity have a direct impact on European employment and competitiveness. National cultural policy and European cooperation enable the development of content quality, the improvement of preconditions for creative work, the distribution of cultural products and the strengthening of cooperation between cultural institutions. Finnish experts have conducted extensive studies on the subject and released publications on the status and development of cultural industry. The Savonlinna meeting will introduce employment creating Structural Funds projects in the field of cultural industry.
Cultural industry means the combination of creativity and economic production.
The Savonlinna meeting will continue the discussion on cooperation in the European field of music. Questions related to the field of music have been widely discussed in the European Union in recent years. The concrete questions of the meeting are music and employment, further education for music professionals, and the mobility of artists and their works in the EU internal market. The meeting will examine the measures needed for securing the visibility of small linguistic and cultural areas and the music of the minorities, and for providing job opportunities for as wide a range of musicians and other music professionals as possible, even outside the mainstreams of music. The Ministers of Culture will also consider how the further education for music professionals should be developed.