The Portuguese city of Óbidos and INTELI–Intelligence in Innovation Centre, respectively Lead Partner and full partner of the URBACT network on Creative Clusters, were invited to attend the European Forum on Cultural Industries that took place in 29-30 March 2010, in Barcelona. The objective of the event was to discuss the importance of cultural industries within the framework of the Spanish Presidency of the European Union. There were also presented the general lines of the Green Paper on Cultural and Creative Industries.
The forum was structured around five key lines of discussion: the financing of the cultural industries; the professionals of the cultural industries (new skills derived from the digital mutation, training challenges, mobility of talent); internationalisation (local production in global markets, internationalisation and cooperation strategies); intellectual property and the management of rights; and spatial development (the role of cities as pro-active frameworks for local creative clusters).
The Mayor of Óbidos, Telmo Faria, presented a communication on the so-called Creative Óbidos strategy in the framework of the URBACT Creative Clusters Network in the session dedicated to “Culture in the European Local and Regional Development programmes”.
In the closing session the Ministers of Culture of Portugal, Spain, Finland, French Community of Belgium and the Minister of State of the Federal Chancellor, Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media of Germany presented their views on the development of the European cultural industries. The European Commissioner for Education and Culture, Androulla Vassiliou, emphasised the excellent example of the Town of Óbidos in the framework of the development of culture and creativity-oriented policies.
The informal meeting of Ministers of Culture of the EU took take place after the Forum, on the 31st March 2010.
Catarina Selada – INTELI
