Las relaciones culturales internacionales de la UE y la necesidad de incorporar a las ciudades

CIDOB notes internacionals 235 from July 2020 discusses the extensive history of cultural diplomacy within the European Union (EU) member states, initially focusing on artistic exchanges and educational and scientific collaborations with other countries. However, the text highlights that today's focus is shifting towards addressing global challenges such as sustainable development, democratization, and conflict resolution through cultural and artistic means. The EU has recently presented a joint strategy for international cultural relations as part of its efforts to broaden the scope of cultural diplomacy. For this strategy to be fully effective, it needs to involve all levels of governance, particularly cities and their local governments.

The 2016 Communication "Towards an EU Strategy for International Cultural Relations" established the need to move beyond understanding cultural diplomacy as a soft power tool and instead adopt a more inclusive and reciprocal approach focused on dialogue, mutual understanding, joint capability development, and global solidarity. This innovative approach promises significant impact on other areas of the EU's foreign policy.

The EU should rethink its strategy for international cultural relations from a multilevel perspective and leverage the potential of cities. The exponential growth in transnational city networks demonstrates cities' emergence as global political actors. Out of 18% of existing transnational networks, many focus on culture and cultural policies. Common interests and visions align with the EU's emphasis on local sustainable development and democratic participation.

Incorporating cities also contributes to broadening and decentralizing the reach of cultural diplomacy. Urgency is needed if the EU aims to respond to today's global cultural flow realities.

However, implementing the ambitions outlined in the strategy is a significant challenge. The desired new spirit of dialogue requires a bottom-up approach that limits government involvement in favor of civil society cooperation and shared ownership with third-party local actors. Unfortunately, the Council of Europe's action framework adopted in April 2019 barely acknowledges non-state actors like local authorities, independent cultural organizations, and civil society. Instead, it focuses almost exclusively on partnerships with national cultural institutions like the Goethe-Institut and Institut français, and their coordinating entity, EUNIC.

Surprisingly, the EU's joint strategy for international cultural relations was implemented in the same month as the Urban Agenda for Europe, which aims to "implement a multi-level governance system" and grants formal roles to local authorities in EU decision-making processes. While the Urban Agenda recognizes cities' growing role in tackling global challenges such as climate change, inequality, and cultural and religious diversity promotion, the relationship between the EU's urban and global agendas remains to be built.

Three reasons explain the lack of city involvement in the EU's cultural diplomacy strategy: first, member states' reluctance to transfer power to subnational governments in a critical area for their sovereignty. Second, due to uneven decentralization, there are significant differences between European cities in terms of autonomy, competencies, resources, and motivation to engage in international cultural relations. Third, cities do not invest enough in Brussels-based actions to convey their potential contribution to the EU's global strategy.

Despite these limitations, European cities play a crucial role in fostering cross-border cultural connections and increasingly establish themselves as autonomous political actors in the international cultural sphere. When discussing cities, one refers not only to their governments but also to the rich ecosystem of cultural institutions, civil society organizations, and artists and cultural producers that jointly determine the cultural life of these cities. Traditionally, urban centers have concentrated much of a country's cultural activities. Cities have a significant influence on the development and implementation of innovative cultural policies.

The article's objective is to demonstrate the potential of cities to achieve the goals set by the EU's international cultural relations strategy through a new multilevel approach. With the appointment of the new head of EU diplomacy, Josep Borrell, in December 2019, there is an opportunity to rethink emerging EU diplomatic culture and consider cities as true partners capable of contributing to the implementation of the new spirit of intercultural dialogue and shaping future EU actions and policies.