Regional organizations, international norms and global governance of culture: The EU foreign policy and the diversity of cultural expressions

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to explore empirically and qualitatively the links between regional organizations and international norms, by using an institutionalism centered on the actors. It seeks thus to analyze the European Union (EU)’s capacity to act within the global governance of culture, and in particular its ability to promote the Convention on diversity of cultural expressions (CDCE) beyond the EU. What is at issue is of why and how the EU foreign cultural policy (EUFCP) uses the CDCE and its normative framework, of what purposes as well as of how the CDCE influences the EUFCP and its objectives. I argue that the CDCE offers an opportunity for the European Commission to establish itself as a foreign policy actor in cultural affairs. Nevertheless, I point out that the disconnect between the Commission and the EU culture organizations is a serious constraint for the effectiveness of the EUFCP, highlighting that the promotion of the CDCE has been especially instrumental in consolidating the Commission’s actorness in external cultural affairs. And finally, I conclude that not only the Commission’s practices largely rely on the willingness of some member states with strong interests in the cultural area, but also the EU’s interpretations on the scope and the goals of the CDCE are far from convergent. Consequently, the Commission’s ability to be a EUFCP’s agent clearly depends on the sensitiveness of the issue and the EU’s actorness is strongly linked to the context in which the EUFCP is made.