Ernest Urtasun brought together the Culture Ministers this Thursday at the Sectoral Conference to discuss the progress of the Cultural Rights Planone of the star measures that the minister hopes to develop, but the participants have left the meeting more or less as they were. Especially the eleven governed by the PP, with the Community of Madrid at the helm, which considers it “erratic and inconsistent” and does not intend to “collaborate” in its implementation. Several sources present at the meeting agree that three months after Culture kicked off the work to develop the plan, no autonomous community has yet received a draft and they still do not see the need for a plan that guarantees rights that are already guaranteed in the Constitution and in different laws.
The Community of Madrid was the most belligerent in this sense. During the meeting, which despite the differences took place in a cordial tone, the representatives of the region regretted that Urtasun had eliminated the General Directorate of Cultural Industries to make room for the new General Directorate of Cultural Rights, in charge of Jasmine Beirak. And at the end of the conference, sources from the Madrid Government described Urtasun’s plan as “erratic and inconsistent.” Madrid is not going to collaborate in its implementation, as the Ministry already conveyed by letter to Beirak prior to today’s sectoral meeting.
Madrid defends “a cultural policy based on strategic plans that seek to attract and promote talent, and promote cultural and creative industries, in constant collaboration with the associative and business fabric of the sector in Madrid and throughout Spain.” In the opinion of the Madrid counselor Mariano de Paco“this line of work has placed the region as an undisputed reference for the sector at the national level, which is why it will continue to be developed by the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Sports, which considers it incompatible with the approaches outlined these months by the Ministry of Culture.
In a press release released by Culture at the end of the sectoral meeting, several autonomous communities have made contributions, “in complete harmony with the plan.” There have been four –Asturias, Murcia, Aragón and Navarra–, but that harmony that the Urtasun team boasts of has not been such. «Aragón has been very belligerent. The plan matters little to them – comments one attendee at the meeting. “They are very angry with the ministry for the historical claims they have, they consider that they violate their cultural rights.” Aragón has recalled that issues such as the Archive of the Crown of Aragon, the closures of the Zaragoza Museum or the assets of Sijena for which Catalonia is fighting remain unaddressed.
Andalusia has also expressed its doubts about the Cultural Rights plan. «We already have cultural rights recognized. What is necessary is a financing plan. What we cannot understand from Andalusia is that there have been 80 million eurosat a rate of 20 a year, to Barcelona for being a cultural capital,” says counselor Patricia del Pozo. «Andalusia does not want to be more than anyone, but neither does it want to be less than anyone. It is difficult to understand that similar treatment is not offered not only to an Andalusian city, but to the whole of Andalusia,” he added. Del Pozo claimed that the community has fifteen world heritage sites, and Córdoba four. The counselor also reminded Urtasun that the State has acquired a total of 200 works of art since 2023, worth 14 million euros, and none have gone to museums managed by the autonomous community.
Mar Sanchodeputy minister of Cultural Action of Castilla y León, adds that several PP communities intervened to go beyond what Urtasun calls cultural rights. «We must defend concrete actions, so that the territorial distribution is equitable. And actions are necessary that will alleviate the disappearance of the Directorate of Cultural Industries, so that everything that is linked to the community’s economy is also taken into account. Sancho explains that Jazmín Beirak presented the general lines of his plan, which Urtasun has ruled out developing into law, as were his intentions. This document, to which ABC has had access, is nothing more than a list of the thematic axes of the plan with a minimal description of each one.
The Ministry of Culture, for its part, encouraged all the autonomous communities to participate in its development, “together with the various agents in the sector and citizens.” With this plan, Urtasun aims to “guarantee that all citizens can access and enjoy culture under conditions of equality, promoting cultural diversity and protecting the rights of creators and professionals in the sector.” A “collaborative process” is currently underway, open until November 17, for experts in the field to contribute ideas. The autonomous communities have until December to submit their own proposals.
Another of the topics addressed was the organization of Mondiacult 2025, which according to Culture is an international event that will place Spain “in the global focus of cultural policies and reflection on culture.” The event will take place in Barcelona from September 29 to October 1 next year. The purpose of the ministry is “to give content to a sustainable development objective (SDG) specific to culture”, which “integrates a look at multilingualism”. At Mondiacult 2025, continuity will be given to the topics discussed at the 2022 event in Mexico: cultural rights, culture and artificial intelligence, and the culture of peace.
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