An analysis of European cultural policy supports the argument that the European Union (EU) is first and foremost an economic union. This paper traces two policy styles in European cultural policy: one oriented to deregulation and privatisation; the other concentrating on social development. It argues that the creation of de facto cultural policy by the European Commission in its audiovisual policy is an important indicator of the direction of EU cultural policy. The paper examines some of the implications for national cultural sovereignty of both audiovisual policy and the move to deregulation and privatisation in the wider cultural sector. It looks at initiatives of the Council of Europe and UNESCO to establish international cultural policies for social development to counter the effects of globalisation on the cultures of Europe. It concludes that this counter-effort is lagging in the European context, and that the tendency to describe culture as a resource does not help to distance the social agenda from the dominant commercial one.
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