92001E1621

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1621/01

by Salvador Garriga Polledo (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(12 June 2001)

Subject: Lottery for the preservation of the European artistic heritage

The recent suggestion by the director of the Louvre on taking his retirement that a lottery should be created for the preservation of France's national artistic heritage is in line with a long-standing European view that the artistic heritage can be preserved by this means.

The British model of a lottery tax for culture underlies such a proposal. It would contribute to the protection of our European artistic heritage via the payments of those playing the lottery, who could consider it an ethical justification for their gaming habit.

Does the Commission consider that it could submit, for the consideration of experts in the field, a suggestion that a Europe-wide lottery could be created with a view to its profits being used to protect the European artistic heritage from the depredations of richer nations, from neglect, or from any other circumstance that could damage an inheritance which is the pride of large numbers of Europeans whose identity is bound up with the accumulated culture of Europe's long history?

Answer given by Mrs Reding on behalf of the Commission

(13 September 2001)

The Community's activities in the cultural sector have their legal basis in Article 151 (ex Article 128) of the EC Treaty.

Under this Article, the Community is competent for:

- encouraging cultural cooperation between Member States and

- if necessary, supporting and supplementing (through financial support) action by Member States in the following areas:

- improvement of the knowledge and dissemination of the culture and history of the European peoples;

- conservation and safeguarding of cultural heritage of European significance;

- non-commercial cultural exchanges;

- artistic and literary creation, including in the audiovisual sector.

The single Community instrument in the cultural sector is the Culture 2000 programme, which is financed from the Community budget, and the Community is not competent to intervene to safeguard the artistic heritage of Member States outside the framework of the existing programmes and initiatives.

Moreover, as regards the possibility of creating new forms of financing for programmes or initiatives, it should be noted that the financing of the Community budget is based on a system of own resources (Article 269 (ex Article 201) of the EC Treaty), the provisions of which are laid down by the Council, acting unanimously on a proposal from the Commission and after consulting the European Parliament. These provisions must be adopted by the Member States in accordance with their own constitutional requirements. Pursuant to the principle of budgetary universality, these resources may not be earmarked for specific expenditure but must be used towards the overall financing of the Community's total budget costs.