Sanatarkat istuntoselostukset

Torstai 20. lokakuuta 2022 - Strasbourg

12.4. Solidaarisuus Ukrainaa kohtaan kulttuurialalla ja yhteinen hätäapumekanismi kulttuurialan elvyttämiseksi Euroopassa (B9-0473/2022)

Mündliche Stimmerklärungen

  Clare Daly (The Left). – Mr President, I voted in favour of this resolution because I agree with the need for solidarity with the cultural sector of Ukraine, which has been direly affected by the Russian invasion. We should remember that war always means the destruction of culture and artistic heritage, and we have a duty to protect it in humanity’s name.

That said, we should recall that Ukraine is a multi-ethnic, multicultural and multilingual society, and threats to diversity didn’t begin in February and don’t end with Russian nationalism. According to earlier censuses, nearly 30% of Ukrainians declared Russian as their native language. We know that language laws have been the subject of discrimination and cultural conflict in Ukraine since 2014. We know the Venice Commission has criticised Ukraine for failing to uphold its international commitments in that regard, so it’s very important that the EU operates to international standards and is not discriminatory.

We know from Ireland and the Good Friday Agreement that peace in Ukraine will require a settlement that acknowledges and respects and secures the heritage of all people of Ukraine, including its minorities.

  Mick Wallace (The Left). – Mr President, this motion talks about supporting the resilience and post-crisis recovery of the EU’s cultural ecosystem as a whole, and I was very happy to vote in favour of it. There’s been a significant increase in the Creative Europe Programme budget to 2.4 billion for the 2021—2027 period, almost double the previous amount.

However, despite this increase in funding, Ireland remains in the bottom rung of European investment in culture, sadly. As one of the hardest hit sectors by Covid, the arts and cultural sector in Ireland has seen far—reaching and damaging consequences in terms of jobs, tourism and regional development. There is basically an arts recession in Ireland.

In the cost of living crisis in Europe, it is more timely than ever to ensure the livelihood of people working in the cultural sector. There is a desperate need across the board for robust recovery mechanisms with targeted funding if anything is going to change. We love to talk about the arts in Ireland, but we don’t love to support it, and that is a real problem.