Report from the Commission to the European Parliament, Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions on the implementation of the Culture 2000 programme
Date: 2008-04-29
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: EU action, action programme, cultural cooperation, cultural policy, project evaluation

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COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES 

Brussels, 29.4.2008 
COM(2008) 231 final 

REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, 
COUNCIL, THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE AND THE 
COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS 

on the implementation of the Culture 2000 programme 

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TABLE OF CONTENTS 

1. 

2. 

3. 

3.1. 

3.2. 

3.3. 

4. 

5. 

INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................ 3 

BACKGROUND OF THE PROGRAMME................................................................ 3 

THE EXTERNAL EVALUATION............................................................................. 4 

Terms and purpose of the evaluation ........................................................................... 4 

Methodology ................................................................................................................ 4 

Findings........................................................................................................................ 5 

Main recommendations of the evaluation and comments from the Commission........ 7 

The Commission's conclusions .................................................................................. 11 

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REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, 
COUNCIL, THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE AND THE 
COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS 

on the implementation of the Culture 2000 programme 

1. 

INTRODUCTION 

This  report  is  presented  under  article  8  of  Decision  n°  508/2000/EC1  of  14  February  2000 
establishing the Culture 2000 programme (hereafter "the programme"), which requires a final 
evaluation on the programme's implementation to be carried out upon its completion. It puts 
forward the Commission's position on the main conclusions and recommendations of the final 
external evaluation of the programme that can be obtained via the link below: 

http://ec.europa.eu/culture/index_en.htm 

These  conclusions  and  recommendations  are  based  on  extensive  surveys  of  Culture  2000 
participants  and  key  stakeholders,  the  detailed  results  of  which  form  an  annex  to  the  Final 
Evaluation report.  

2. 

BACKGROUND OF THE PROGRAMME 

According  to  Decision  N°  508/2000  (hereafter  "the  Decision"),  the  programme  aimed  at 
contributing  to  the  promotion  of  a  cultural  area  common  to  Europe's  peoples  by  supporting 
cooperation  activities  among  artists,  cultural  operators,  private  and  public  promoters  and 
cultural networks.  

These  activities  had  to  contribute,  or  be  capable  of  contributing,  to  attain  the  following 
objectives: 

- promoting cultural dialogue and mutual knowledge of European peoples 

- promoting creativity and transnational dissemination of culture, with a strong emphasis on 
young and socially disadvantaged people and on cultural diversity 

- highlighting of cultural diversity and development of new forms of cultural expression 

- sharing of the common cultural heritage of European significance  

- taking into account culture's role in socioeconomic development 

- fostering intercultural dialogue and mutual exchange between European and non-European 
cultures 

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OJ L 63 of 10 March 2000 

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-  recognising  culture  as  an  economic  factor  as  well  as  a  factor  in  citizenship  and  social 
integration 

- improving EU citizens' access and participation in cultural activities 

The  programme  had  three  main  actions.  These  are:  action  1  –  specific  innovative  and/or 
experimental  actions;  action  2  –  integrated  actions  covered  by  structures,  multiannual 
transnational  cultural  cooperation  agreements;  and  action  3  –  special  cultural  events  with  a 
European or international dimension. 

The Programme was established for the period from 1 January 2000 to 31 December 2004; as 
its duration was extended in 20042, it ended definitively on 31 December 2006. However, its 
main  components  have  been  integrated  into  the  current  Culture  programme  for  the  period 
2007-2013. 

3. 

THE EXTERNAL EVALUATION 

3.1. 

Terms and purpose of the evaluation 

Based on the framework service contract n° EAC/03/063, ECOTEC Ltd was selected to carry 
out the evaluation. 

The  external  evaluation  aimed  to  assess  the  implementation  of  the  programme  and  the 
achievement of its objectives, to report on the extent to which the actions adopted so far have 
contributed  significantly  to  the  objectives  specified  in  the  Decision  and  to  the  overall 
objectives of Community action in the field of culture as provided for in Article  151 of  the 
Treaty;4 and to provide lessons learned to support the implementation of any new programmes 
in the field of culture, in particular the new Culture programme 2007-2013. 

This  final  evaluation  follows  on  from  the  first  and  second  external  interim  evaluations.5  It 
covers  all  actions  funded  during  the  period  2000-2006.  The  analysis  of  the  Education 
Audiovisual  and  Culture  Executive  Agency  (EACEA)  was  limited  to  its  role  in  the 
management  and  implementation  of  the  Culture  2000  programme  from  the  date  of  its 
establishment in January 2006. 

3.2.  Methodology 

The methodology used by the external evaluator can be summarized as follows: 

- documentary review of documents from project files;  

- interviews with European Commission and EACEA staff; 

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Decision n° 626/2004/EC of the European Parliament and the Council of 31 March 2004, OJ L 99 of 3rd 
April 2004 
Framework contract on evaluation, evaluation-related services and support for impact assessment 
The Treaty states that "The Community shall contribute to the flowering of the cultures of the Member 
States, while respecting their national and regional diversity and at the same time bringing the common 
cultural heritage to the fore." It also highlights specific areas where Community support can be given. 
The 
available 
http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/education_culture/evalreports/index_en.htm 

evaluations 

online 

are 

at: 

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- structured surveys of members of the Programme Management Committee, Cultural Contact 
Points,  experts  involved  in  selection  and  other  cultural  experts;  and  of  cultural  operators 
involved in the programme as project leaders or co-organisers;  

- country and project case studies;  

- an evaluation seminar; and 

- e-consultation. 

This  resulted  in  a  series  of  recommendations,  on  which  the  Commission's  position  is 
summarised in this report. 

3.3. 

Findings 

1. 

External coherence 

The concept of external coherence refers to how Culture 2000 fits within the broader context 
of cultural policy and programmes.  

The evaluation found that a large proportion of EU programmes such as the structural funds, 
Media and Active Citizenship, do have cultural elements to them and that similarities do exist 
between  their  objectives,  target  groups,  outputs,  results  and  impacts  and  those  of  Culture 
2000.  Similarly,  a  number  of  regional  intercultural  cooperation  initiatives  and  bilateral 
initiatives also exist.  

However, evidence from the review of EU programmes and the email surveys of stakeholders 
clearly indicates that Culture 2000 occupied a unique position. There were no other European 
Union-wide  programmes  aimed  at  supporting  and  fostering  European  cultural  co-operation 
and  when  the  distinct  focus  and  intended  outcomes  of  each  EU  and  regional  programme  is 
taken into account it is clear that any apparent duplication was only superficial. 

The evaluator's conclusions are that Culture 2000 was fully complementary to other EU and 
national/regional  cultural  programmes  and  did  not  duplicate  activities  undertaken  elsewhere 
through other such programmes. 

Enhancing  the  exchange  of  information  and  best  practice  among  participating  countries 
remains a challenge, but the evaluation shows that Culture 2000 has raised the importance and 
awareness of intercultural dialogue among participating countries 

The  consensus  among  interviewees  and  from  survey  respondents  was  that  the  programme's 
objectives  were  relevant  and  that  the  activities  supported  were  appropriate  to  their 
achievement. Some stakeholders questioned the programmes ability to achieve the objectives 
given its relatively small financial resources.  

2. 

Effectiveness 

Evidence from the project document review and the web-survey of projects indicates that the 
programme was successful in achieving its results and impacts to at least some extent. 

The  evaluator  concludes  that  some  barriers  did  exist  that  prevented  the  participation  of 
cultural  actors  in  the  programme,  specifically  in  terms  of  organisational  experience  and 

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financial resources. However, it was found that given the limited budget of the Culture 2000 
programme, it is difficult to see how these could have been overcome within the programme. 

Overall  visibility  of  Culture  2000  among  cultural  operators  was  felt  to  be  good,  but  survey 
respondents expressed doubts over the depth of understanding of the programme by cultural 
operators. 

3. 

Efficiency 

Commission  and  EACEA  staff  indicated  that  their  workload  was  persistently  heavy  with 
extensive  administrative  duties  that  restricted  their  ability  to  provide  support  to  projects. 
Assuming the inherent validity of evidence from respondent staff, the evaluator concludes that 
there  was  a  mismatch  between  the  deployment  of  staff  resources  and  the  volume  of  work 
during the life of the programme, particularly at peak times. 

Concerning  the  IT  systems  in  place  the  evaluator's  assessment  is  that  programme  managers 
were not supported by appropriate infrastructure. 

Cultural Contact Points have been established in the Member States and in most of the other 
participating countries for promoting the programme and facilitating access to it. According to 
the evaluation, they have overall used their grants to provide an effective and efficient service 
to cultural operators.  

Participants  were  satisfied  with  the  application  process  and  were  equally  positive  about  the 
information provided about the programme. The majority of web-survey respondents felt that 
the process was clear and that the frequency of calls was about right although their timing was 
inappropriate. The second source of criticism was the length of the process itself.  

However,  the  evaluation  recognises  that  factors  such  as  the  Management  Committee 
procedure and the European Parliament's right of scrutiny affect the length of the process and 
cannot  be  avoided.  The  evaluator  concluded  that  the  main  scope  for  shortening  the  Culture 
2000 selection procedure would have been to use additional human resources to speed up the 
processing of applications and their assessment.  

According to the survey respondents the programme dissemination activities could have been 
substantially improved. 

The evaluation found that the final project reports were of variable quality and usefulness as 
information on outputs, results and impacts were not systematically collected and analysed in 
relation to the programme’s objectives. Almost all survey respondents felt that the monitoring 
and reporting forms were easy to use and the guidance on completing them was of acceptable 
quality, although some areas for improvement were nevertheless identified. 

The  Commission  and  EACEA  assessments  of  the  final  reports  did  involve  substantial 
financial checks to identify and remove ineligible expenditure. In this respect, the monitoring 
process was effective at identifying and removing such expenditure from the final payments 
to projects. 

4. 

Utility 

In terms of the changes that Culture 2000 has produced in Europe, there has been, according 
to the evaluator, a clearly demonstrable and wide-ranging impact, and in particular on cultural 

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operators,  cultural  practices  and  policy.  The  establishment  of  Culture  2000  gave  cultural 
operators  in  Europe  the  opportunity  to  participate  in  a  comprehensive  programme  of 
transnational cooperation with partnerships covering over 30 countries. This opportunity was 
and is not provided by any other mechanism and the result of this is that cultural operators, 
who  tended  previously  to  be  focused  on  activities  within  their  own  countries,  have  become 
more outward-looking and more open to transnational intercultural cooperation. 

5. 

Sustainability 

Cultural  operators  reported 
they  have  established,  strengthened  and  extended 
transnational networks across Europe that are not only sustaining their links and activities, but 
generating new cooperation projects. These new cooperation projects are taking place within 
the context of EU culture programmes but also independently of them. 

that 

Additionally,  the  evaluator's  assessment,  based  on  both  project  documents  and  case  studies, 
demonstrates that at least part of the activities and outcomes of Culture 2000 projects continue 
after the funding has expired. 

Although there is no evidence that Culture 2000 led to the establishment of new regional or 
national  intercultural  cooperation  initiatives,  the  programme  had  a  clear  impact  on  cultural 
policies  in  some  participating  countries.  The  programme  inspired  the  amendment  of  some 
existing  cooperation  structures  and  has  resulted  in  the  establishment  of  new  co-financing 
arrangements in many countries, with the effect of increasing the overall amount of funding 
available in particular for intercultural dialogue. 

4. 

MAIN  RECOMMENDATIONS  OF  THE  EVALUATION  AND  COMMENTS  FROM  THE 
COMMISSION 

The main recommendations6 from the evaluator are presented in italics and grouped per theme 
where appropriate, while the Commission's position is in standard fonts. 

1. 

Programme management system 

Recommendation 1 

The Managing Authorities should evaluate existing ways of working against current models of 
good practice to investigate the mismatch between the deployment of staff resources and the 
volume of work during the life of the programme. 

Recommendation 2 

The  Managing  Authorities  should  schedule  an  annual  visit  programme  to  a  proportion  of 
projects to provide support and guidance on technical issues. 

Recommendation 3 

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Where  they  are  addressed  to  "the  Managing  Authorities"  it  is  meant  that  the  addressees  are  both  the 
European Commission and its Education Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) 

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The  Managing  Authorities  should  provide  detailed  qualitative  feedback  to  all  applicants  to 
the  culture  programme.  This  will  allow  applicants  to  determine  whether  to  reapply  with  a 
revised project proposal and how their proposal can be improved.  

Recommendation 8 

The Managing Authorities should explore the possibility of developing an online searchable 
partner-matching  database  to  assist  cultural  operators  to  find  partners  and  develop  project 
concepts. 

Recommendation 9 

The  Managing  Authorities  should  take  over  responsibility  for  the  management  and 
maintenance of the CUPID project database or should develop an equivalent. 

Recommendation 14 

The  Managing  authorities  should  develop  an  interim  programme  management  database  to 
assist  in  monitoring  applications  and  projects  until  SYMMETRY  is  available.  This  should 
contain  basic  information  about  each  application  (e.g.,  lead  partner  contact  details,  co-
organiser contact details and outline of the budget) and record key administrative milestones 
(e.g., contracting, payments and reporting). 

Recommendation 15 

The  Managing  Authorities  should  continue  moves  to  improve  the  guidance  available  to 
support  applicants  to  submit  an  application  from.  This  guidance  should  be  extended  to 
include the interim and final project reports and project management. Quality guidance and 
support to applicants and project promoters will improve the quality of applications coming 
forward for support and will improve the quality of funded projects. The SOCRATES Guide 
for Applicants, June 2004 edition provides a good example.  

Recommendation 16 

The Managing Authorities should take steps to reduce the length of the application process by 
securing  more  short-term  administrative  resources  for  application  processing  and  project 
contracting and additional culture experts for application assessment. 

Commission's position 

The Commission generally agrees with these recommendations. It has already started a wide-
ranging  simplification  process  that  led  to  significant  improvements  in  2007,  including  in-
depth  revision  of  the  calls  for  proposals  and  application  procedure,  more  transparent 
definition of award criteria, simplification of the forms and documents to be provided, more 
detailed  feedback  to  applicants,  streamlining  of  the  current  programme  database,  increased 
flexibility for the duration of the support to bodies active in the field of culture, namely the 
new possibility for funding on a multiannual basis.  

Other measures are in preparation and will mostly if not completely be implemented in 2008, 
such  as  the  introduction  of  a  programme  guide  for  the  years  to  come  in  order  to  facilitate 
planning  and  preparation  for  applicants,  closer  monitoring  through  more  visits  to  projects, 
wider use of flat rates, gradual development of an on-line application and reporting system. 

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Furthermore, steps have been taken internally to shorten the application process as much as 
possible. In 2008, grant decisions will replace contracts for an increasing number of strands, 
which  should  cut  the  process  by  a  month  on  average.  Increased  use  of  flat-rates  will,  in 
addition  to  facilitating  the  application  procedure,  speed  up  the  processing  of  applications 
within  DG  EAC  and  EACEA.  As  the  evaluator  points  out,  there  are  nevertheless  external 
factors  and  legal  constraints  that  prevent  the  process  from  being  radically  reduced.  The 
Commission  is,  however,  seeking  to  obtain  a  modification  of  the  legal  base,  which  would 
enable  the  Commission  –  with  the  exception  of  the  multiannual  projects  -  to  directly  adopt 
award  decisions.  If  this  is  approved  by  the  Council  and  European  Parliament,  the  selection 
process could be reduced by several weeks. 

In order to address the mismatch between the deployment of staff resources and the volume of 
work during the life of the programme, a specific Unit in charge of the programme has been 
created in the Commission and the relevant Unit in EACEA has been reorganised. Although 
this  will  vastly  improve  matters,  the  evaluator's  conclusion  that  Commission  and  EACEA's 
persistently heavy workload with extensive administrative duties may restrict their ability to 
provide support to projects remains valid. 

2. 

Programme communication system 

Recommendation 4 

The  Commission  should  appoint  a  Publications  and  Communications  officer.  This  officer 
should  be  responsible  for  the  organisation,  editorial  content  and  quality  control  of  the 
Culture  webpages  and  all  Culture  Unit  /  Culture  Programme  publications  such  as 
programme thematic reports, the project compendium and the Culture Unit newsletter.  

Recommendation 5 

The  Managing  Authorities  should  publish  an  annual  compendium  of  projects  to  be  made 
available  on  the  DG  EAC  culture  webpages.  The  compendium  should  include  an  index  and 
projects should be listed by cultural field and country of lead applicant. 

Recommendation 6 

The  Managing  Authorities  should  reintroduce  a  regular  Culture  2007  newsletter.  It  is 
recommended  that  this  covers  EU  cultural  policy  rather  than  the  Culture  programme 
specifically in order to allow a broader range of content  

Recommendation 7 

The  DG  EAC  culture  webpages  should  be  redesigned  and  re-launched  to  comply  with  the 
Commission's Information Providers Guide and basic accessibility requirements  

Commission's position 

The Commission considers that appropriate communication activities are a key tool for good 
implementation  of  the  programme.  The  DG  EAC  culture  webpages  were  completely 
redesigned in early 2008 and the Culture newsletter will be relaunched. Communication and 
publications activities have been streamlined as part of the above-mentioned reorganisation of 
DG  EAC  and  EACEA.  EACEA  will  publish  project  compendia.  The  Culture  Infodays,  that 

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were  launched  in  2007  will  be  regularly  organised  in  the  future,  and  serve  as  a  valuable 
opportunity to provide information to potential applicants.  

3. 

Programme dissemination activities 

Recommendation 10 

The  Managing  Authorities  should  publish  thematic  reports  on  the  programme  to  support 
dissemination of programme achievements and good practice lessons.  

Recommendation 11 

The  Managing  Authorities  should  run  a  programme  of  events  (or  a  single  event)  where 
existing projects can showcase themselves to policy-makers, and newly selected projects can 
attend  briefing  sessions  on  project  management  for  culture  programme  management  (e.g., 
monitoring, evaluation, financial record keeping, etc.).  

Recommendation 12 

The European Commission should improve its collection of best practice information arising 
from  EU  culture  programmes  and  promote  policy  lessons  for  intercultural  dialogue  to  the 
culture Ministries of participating countries.  

Recommendation 13 

The  Managing  Authorities  should  restructure  the  final  report  templates  to  collect  detailed 
information on project achievements, outputs, results and impacts. This information should be 
used to support programme dissemination activities.  

Commission's position 

The  Commission  made  considerable  efforts  in  2007  to  further  improve  the  collection  and 
dissemination  of  results,  including  the  introduction  of  a  specific  award  criterion  in  the  calls 
for  proposals.  Measures  are  being  taken  to  facilitate  the  down-loading  of  results  into  a  new 
information sharing data base, which is near completion. The results of these changes will be 
available  in  the  medium-term  after  a  complete  life-cycle  of  projects.  Other  initiatives  are 
foreseen, such as organising seminars or conferences (possibly thematic) where projects could 
showcase  best  practices,  collecting  good  practices  on  intercultural  dialogue  within  the 
programme to be exploited in the context of the 2008 European Year of intercultural dialogue, 
or to make better use of Cultural Contact Points for dissemination activities at both European 
and local level. 

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5. 

THE COMMISSION'S CONCLUSIONS 

The Commission shares the evaluator's overall assessment that the programme has provided a 
stimulus  to  cross-border  cultural  cooperation  and  encouraged  more  outward-looking 
approaches, resulting in a unique contribution to the promotion of a cultural area common to 
the peoples of Europe. 

It clearly results from this final evaluation that Culture 2000 has appropriately implemented 
Community action in the cultural field as foreseen in article 151 of the Treaty and has met its 
objectives as set out in the Decision. 

More than 1,500 grants were awarded to cultural operators under the programme's actions for 
the 2000-2006 period, with grant payments in excess of 190 Mio EUR. 

The evaluator's conclusions show that, even if there is room for improvement in some areas, 
participants  have  nevertheless  proved  to  be  satisfied  with  the  programme  and  recognise  its 
European added value. 

The  Commission  has  greatly  intensified  consultation  with  the  cultural  sector  and  is  paying 
close  attention  to  the  views  expressed  by  stakeholders  within  this  process  and  which  are 
echoed in this evaluation report.  

Building  on  the  experience  of  Culture  2000,  many  new  features  and  improvements  have 
already  been  integrated  in  the  current  Culture  programme  for  the  period  2007-2013.  Others 
are underway and will mostly be implemented in the course of 2008. 

The  Commission  will  take  the  results  of  this  evaluation  into  account  in  the  long  run,  when 
preparing the new generation of Community programmes in the field of culture for the period 
after 2013. 

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