Foreign Minister Gabriel at the Federal Congress on Cultural Policy

Tomorrow (Thursday, 15 June) Foreign Minister Gabriel will attend the Federal Congress on Cultural Policy at the Catholic Academy in Berlin, where he will deliver a keynote speech entitled Crisis, Order, Europe – Germany’s cultural policy and responsibility on the world stage. 

Foreign Minister Gabriel made the following statement prior to the congress:

Zusatzinformationen

These days, internal and external policy are inextricably linked. Retreating into our national shells or resorting to self-centred policy would be the completely wrong answer, in view of our increasingly interconnected world.

On the contrary, considering the many crises we currently face, cross-border cooperation is more important than ever – not only between countries, but particularly also between our societies. Ensuring access to culture and education, and thus enabling participation in a society’s decision-making, is key for giving people access to a brighter future.

With Germany’s cultural relations and education policy, we are helping people in conflict regions, and we are creating spaces in which culture, science and education are free to develop.

We want to step up these efforts, together with our European partners and especially with France. Our endeavours will focus on, among other places, selected locations in Turkey. Furthermore, as a country of immigration, we must make sure that we better use the expertise of our cultural intermediaries here at home– for example, when addressing integration-related issues.

Background information:

The Federal Congress on Cultural Policy is jointly organised by the Association for Cultural Policy and the Federal Agency for Civic Education (bpb). It is held every two years and is attended by the key actors of Germany’s cultural policy.

The motto for this year’s Federal Congress is Internal and external cultural policy. There will be various panels and fora, at which participants will discuss current cultural and artistic developments in connection with globalisation, as well as their effects on the challenges that cultural policy is facing.

Culture and intercultural dialogue

from
http://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/EN/Infoservice/Presse/Meldungen/2017/170614-BM-Kulturpolitischer_Bundeskongress.html?nn=479796