Cost	Percentage
European Neighbourhood	955,698	16%
Advocacy and Cultural Policy	351,067	6%
Total Linking policy and practice	1,306,765	22%

Eastern Partnership

• Capacity building and community development workshops in the framework of the project Ukraine Culture Network delivered independent analytical mappings of cultural resources in seven Ukrainian cities.
• Eight rural communities from across Moldova formed strategic cooperation Trios, which engaged a local NGO, a publicly-funded cultural institution and local authorities in the shared implementation of a cultural development project in their own municipality.
• In a number of policy expert meetings at ministerial level, the European Commission introduced policy proposals of an ECF-initiated civil society advocacy group for cultural policy reform in the EU’s Eastern neighbouring countries (so-called Subgroup Culture of Working Group 4 of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum).

Tandem Cultural Managers’ Exchange

• 49 cultural managers from Ukraine, Moldova and 13 EU countries (France, Germany, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, The Netherlands, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden and the UK) concluded the first round of 24 collaboration Tandems between EU and non-EU countries by curating an ad hoc closing festival featuring 24 pop-up exhibits in an abandoned museum in the Moldovan capital, Chisinau.
• 32 cultural managers from 11 cities in Turkey and eight EU member states (France, Italy, Germany, Latvia, Slovenia, The Netherlands, Poland and the UK) concluded their one-year Tandem collaboration and work placement process with an exhibition of their 16 co-productions in Istanbul and Berlin.
• 12 cultural managers from Egypt, Germany, Latvia, The Netherlands, Spain, Syria, Tunisia and Turkey formed six new Tandems to foster trans-national cultural community collaboration between Europe and the Arab world.
• Participants of all three Tandem schemes created a Tandem Alumni Community group.

In 2012, the programme’s communication objective was to promote the people behind the European Neighbourhood Programme – who are these change-makers and why is ECF working to support them? We created a series of video interviews with participants in their setting (posting one a month online) and made two short films about the Tandem programme profiling the collaboration of four Tandems. We distributed these through social media sites and reached out to new audiences as well as to key ECF stakeholders. One film has had more than 1,000 views. To access our youtube channel click here.

We also increased the use of images online to highlight the work of the programme. ECF led on the communications outreach for the Tandem project, drawing in new audiences to apply for the programme, supporting partners in successfully launching regional Tandem festivals/events, including publicity and online promotions, and developing the Tandem brand.

 Highlighted video documentaries

• Animation Tandem Turkey – EU connections
• Project documentary Tandem EU – Ukraine/Moldova
• Project documentary Tandem EU – Turkey

Highlighted publications

A number of publications were created as a result of the programme:

• Alternative Art Guides were published for the cities of Lviv, Ivano Frankivsk, Kiev, Odessa, Kherson, Kharkiv, Donetsk (conceived and produced in the framework of Ukraine Culture Network)
• 2012 Yearbook Cultural Policy & Management Turkey (KPY-Cultural Policy and Management Research Center Istanbul)
• World CP International Database of Cultural Policies – online publication of Cultural Policy Profile Morocco (update), Cultural Policy Profile Algeria (update)
• Strategic Management in the Arts (Lidia Varbanova) – extended English version of ECF capacity building training handbook published by Routledge
• Tandem Turkey project publication.

The introduction of the new Tandem Cultural Manager Exchange Schemes rapidly gained momentum. ECF took a different approach to setting up these schemes, working with external implementation and funding partners as well as several internal teams (Communications, Finance).

We learned that working along new structures requires additional time in order to manage transitional roles.

In early 2012 a project manager left unexpectedly. At the same time, developing ECF’s new strategy 2013-2016 led to additional work. As a result, there was a considerable work overload during the first months of the year.

Finally, the security situation in Syria posed a serious challenge to the successful realisation of work placements and projects for the Damascus-Oberhausen collaboration (Tandem: Shaml Europe – Arab World).

During 2013, we will see the conclusion of the Ukraine Culture Network and Trio Moldova capacity building projects. We will launch a new round of Tandem Turkey–EU Cultural Managers’ Exchange with renewed funding from Mercator Stiftung at the same time as finishing work on the Tandem Shaml Europe–Arab World in Berlin, pilot in partnership with the Robert Bosch Foundation. We will focus our efforts on developing new Tandem Cultural Managers’ exchange schemes, including one involving organisations in the Netherlands with their near neighbours, as well as building up communications across the scheme. Last but not least, our Subgroup Culture civil society advocacy group will participate in the EU–Eastern Partnership Ministers Conference in Georgia.

1)    Promoting intercultural dialogue

Our strategic partner, the Platform for Intercultural Europe, contributed actively to European policy-making by participating in the Structured Dialogue and as a civil society stakeholder at the Open Method of Co-ordination (OMC) for advancing a shared goal: cultural diversity and intercultural dialogue on the EU policy agenda. The Platform’s work through involvement in the European Integration Forum secured ‘mainstreaming’ of culture into other policy areas.

2)    Culture in EU external relations

ECF partnered with national cultural institutes and independent foundations in the ‘More Europe external cultural relations’ initiative in 2012. ECF, in partnership with SICA (Dutch Centre for International Cultural Activities), organised a high-level public debate entitled Beyond markets: culture and creative industries in the EU’s external relations in Amsterdam on 19 September. The event involved a dozen high-level speakers and more than 220 participants from the worlds of culture, creative industries, academia, politics and business. The debate, which was among the six More Europe debates staged across Europe, had the effect of involving a broader range of stakeholders, with the goal of embedding culture in EU’s external relations. ECF documented the debate by publishing a report, as well as capturing audio and video footage.

ECF joined a consortium of partners, led by the Goethe Institute in Brussels, which was successfully selected in December to carry out a Preparatory action on Culture in EU external relations. This action is intended to inform European policy-making.

3)    EU budget and EU programme for culture 2014-2020

In 2012, ECF took the lead in building a strong chapter in the Netherlands of the we are more campaign, an initiative related to the future EU Creative Europe programme (the new seven year round of cultural funding 2014–2010) and carried out in strategic partnership with Culture Action Europe. New advocacy partnerships were set up in the Netherlands (e.g. Kunsten 92 and Media Desk Netherlands) to involve more than 50 organisations in we are more. We also managed to secure two highly esteemed campaign ambassadors in the Netherlands (Princess Margriet Award laureate Charles Esche and artistic director of Holland Festival, Pierre Audi).

The unique results of this nationally-focused action include:

• the first plenary debate on EU and culture at the Dutch Parliament (“Tweede Kamer”) held on 25 April 2012
• political parties handed in motions on this issue for the first time
• several amendments proposed by the ECF were taken up by Members of Parliament.

On a European level, ECF renewed its financial and communication support to the we are more campaign, and initiated two complementary contributions to the Creative Europe programme proposal: one by the foundation, and one by the Tandem community (civil society actors from Moldova and Ukraine) – for reinforcing cultural cooperation with the European Neighbourhood. Both statements nurtured the debate in the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum, where ECF coordinates a culture sub-group.  ECF participated actively in public consultations, debates and hearings on Creative Europe at the EU level (read also Eastern Partnership).

4)    Cultural Policy Research Award (CPRA)

The 2012 Cultural Policy Research Award, a joint initiative of ECF, Riksbankens Jubileumsfond and European Network of Cultural Administration Training Centers (ENCATC), was awarded to Christiaan De Beukelaer (Belgium) in 2012 for his research proposal: “Developing Culture and Culturing Development: A critical analysis of the link between cultural industries and sustainable human development in the Global South”. The international jury selected the winner from 23 young researchers from 12 countries. The 9^th Young Researchers Forum brought together 40 participants from Europe and beyond at Goldsmiths University of London in September. Also, in view of the CPRA’s 10^th anniversary in 2013, an independent evaluation has been commissioned (report to be presented in February 2013).

Jury CPRA

• Lluís Bonet (President) University of Barcelona, Spain
• Jacques Bonniel, Université Lyon 2, France
• Mikhail Gnedovsky, Cultural Policy Institute (Russia)
• Therese Kaufmann, eipcp (Austria)
• Eleonora Belfiore, University of Warwick (United Kingdom)
• Sanjin Dragojević , University of Zagreb (Croatia)
• Timo Cantell, Urban Facts, Helsinki (Finland)

ECF communicated intensively on the we are more campaign, both online and offline. By the end of 2012, the campaign message in the Netherlands was endorsed by 50 Dutch cultural organisations, which act as multipliers through their own large networks.

Two letters were sent to the State Secretary of Culture and the Dutch spokespersons on culture in parliament. we are more was promoted at more than 10 public events across 2012 to mobilise the cultural and creative sectors in the Netherlands and was featured in a publication by Castrum Perigrini and the magazine De Groene Amsterdammer: ‘Vrijheid’ (Freedom), reaching over 30,000 people.

A dedicated article on Creative Europe was published in the Dutch daily newspaper, De Volkskrant, in January 2012, while ECF’s statement on the programme was circulated via direct mailing to about 2000 recipients.

The ECF-organised More Europe debate in Amsterdam Beyond markets: culture and creative industries in the EU’s external relations also had a wide media outreach. Besides expanding ECF’s networks with over 300 new contacts, it had dedicated press coverage in two main Dutch dailies: Financiële Dagblad (FD) and NRC Handelsblad  (where an in-depth interview with ECF’s Director on ECF’s overall mission and goals was published). The content of the debate has been shared with the entire ECF constituency via a dedicated e-zine, ECF website feature, as well as via Facebook and Twitter.

Full debate audio recordings are available at: Panel 1 and Panel 2. A video compilation of the debate, a clip featuring quotes from the speakers and a photo gallery are also available.

Strategic partnerships are essential to our advocacy work and we should regularly review them to make sure they align with our goals, that they are mutually satisfactory and contribute to our common objectives. We should be open for new partnership opportunities. ECF is a recognised European policy player, able to push new ideas into the institutional agenda. Thanks to our independence, long track record in knowledge-building and access to civil society networks, we are well placed to positively influence European strategies and policies.

The CPRA has been assessed as a valuable contribution to applied and comparative cultural policy research of European relevance. The network and connectivity among young researchers needs to be reinforced through online platforms.

ECF will reinforce its advocacy activities by merging with our Research & Development unit. We will continue our strategic partnership with the we are more campaign at European and national level (in the Netherlands). Our new Networked Project will offer a new challenging opportunity for ECF’s advocacy work involving new players and different advocacy targets and channels.

ECF is partnering with the Goethe Institute, Institut français, the British Council, the Danish Cultural Institute, Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen (IFA), Bozar (Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels) and KEA European Affairs in a consortium that has been mandated by the European Commission to conduct a Preparatory Action on Culture in External Relations. The action will support and nurture on-going policy reflection and progress in strengthening the role that culture plays in external relations.

To celebrate the CPRA’s tenth anniversary, we will organise a special event and Young Researchers Forum in November in Brussels. The Online Forum activities will be re-launched in a new digital platform, under ECF Labs.

Governing Urban Diversity? An exploration of policy tools for cultural diversity in five European capital cities by Dr Davide Ponzini, CPRA winner in 2009.