Directors of Social Statistics meeting 17 September 2007 2.5. Culture Statistics Current situation and future perspectives DSS – 17/9/07 Culture statistics

Past events 1995 Council asks for better use of existing statistics on Culture 1997-1999 Leadership group, mainly on statistical methods an scope 1999-2004 Working group and further methodological developments on Cultural employment Expenditure on culture Cultural participation HUM 2 September 2007

Reinforced interest Since 2005, the Council and later the Commission showed a renewed interest for Culture statistics in the context of the Lisbon strategy Study, Communications, Conclusions are convergent and strong On 24-25 May 2007, the Council invited, (…) with a view to promoting evidence-based policy making, the Commission to strengthen its work, … pursue work in the field of cultural statistics in terms of definitions and methodologies … co-operate, as appropriate, with other relevant international institutions; the Member States to lend their full support to data gathering efforts, … … the Member States and the Commission to decide on further priorities and identify new areas of data collection to measure the contribution of culture and creative industries to the Lisbon Agenda, promote and ensure the regular exchange of best practice in the field of the economy of the cultural and creative sectors." HUM 2 September 2007

Current situation Strong expression of policy interest Focusing on economics of culture and creative industries Existence of a corpus of statistical methods and definition On going systematic exploration and assessment of the existing data HUM 2 September 2007

Framework for further actions Clarify the demand Root the work in the current methodological acquis Base the data on existing sources as much as possible Rely on the expertise in MS Seek cooperation at the international level HUM 2 September 2007

Further steps Check willingness of MS and Eurostat 2008 Revitalisation of the Culture WG 2008 ESSnet on culture (2-3 years) Evaluation HUM 2 September 2007

Feed back from MS Positive, even some enthusiasm and strong support Willingness to participate in the network Existing data sources are the preferred way HUM 2 September 2007