Legislation and Policy Measures

Compendium authors present an extensive overview of policies and legal instruments to support culture.

Information on specific policy issues and debates in the individual countries is provided throughout the various sections making up chapter 4.

Information on existing and upcoming legislation in the culture field and is available in chapter 5. These laws are categorised according to general legislation which have an important impact on culture and sector specific legislation for the following fields:  visual and applied arts; performing arts and music; cultural heritage; literature and libraries; architecture and environment; film, video and photography; culture industries; and mass media. Web links to original legal texts in English are provided in those country profiles where available.

Comparative and monitoring instruments have been developed on the basis of this information and the results are presented in the tables listed below.

Compendium Tables

• Legislation for the Cultural Field: Monitoring Developments
  2004 / 2005 / 2006 / 2007 / 2008
• Monitoring the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages
  Ratification / Officially Recognised Languages / Programmes
• Laws and Policies Supporting Main National Minority Groups
  Statistics / Rights for Minority Groups / Targeted Cultural Policies
• Linguistic Diversity and Media Programming
  Legal Provisions / Recognised Languages / Radio-TV
• Measures to Support Book Markets in Europe
  VAT Rates / Fixed Book Price / Funding for Publishers
• Monitoring Government Action to Implement Social and Fiscal Measures for Self-Employed Artists
  End of 90s / 2000 / 2005 / 2007 / 2008
• Social Security Laws and Measures to Support Self-Employed Artists
  Tax Measures / Unemployment Assistance / Pension Supplements
• VAT Reductions on the Earnings of Self-Employed Artists?
  Standard VAT Rates / VAT Reductions for Authors and Visual Artists
• Special Income Tax Measures for Artists?
  Professional Expenses/ Income Averaging

External Resources

• European Commission, study carried out by the Réunion des Musées nationaux in collaboration with the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin: An Inventory of National Systems of Public Guarantees in 31 European Countries. EU Study n° 2003-4879, 2004.
• Delia Mucica: Cultural Legislation: Why? How? What?. Council of Europe, Cultural Policy and Action Department, Strasbourg, January 2003.
• Dorota Ilczuk: Private action for the public good: regulations, incentives and examples of practice. Council of Europe, Cultural Policy and Action Department, Strasbourg, January 2001.
• Péter Inkei: Tax incentives for private support to culture.  Council of Europe, Cultural Policy and Action Department, Strasbourg, January 2001.
• Susanne Nikoltchev and Francisco Javier Cabrera Blázquez: State of Signatures and Ratifications of Relevant European Conventions and other International Treaties relating to the Audiovisual Sector.  A report to the European Audiovisual Observatory, Strasbourg, 2005.