EU: Artists, musicians and writers from across Europe have issued a joint appeal for the European Union to strengthen "a European cultural identity" and have called for "new, daring and federalizing initiatives".
Rejecting the "illusion" that the EU serves primarily an economic and monetary purpose, the artists present their alternative: "a Europe founded on its culture". The artistic manifesto calls on next week's discussions on a constitution for Europe to take Europe's culture into account.
"If the Europe of production and consumption were to dominate Europe as a civilisation, if Europe as a common market were to replace Europe as a political and cultural project, the present global crisis might culminate in a clash between the forces of fundamentalism and those of materialism," the artists write.
The solution they offer is "artistic and cultural exchanges [which for centuries] have ignored national frontiers and language barriers and have helped to surmount divides and heal the wounds inflicted by the bloodiest conflicts".
"As European citizens we are all heirs to Homer and Virgil, Van Eyck and Michelangelo, Shakespeare and Cervantes, Bach and Mozart, Chopin and Liszt, Flaubert and Kafka, Eisenstein and Bergman," they argue.
The letter, addressed to "the leaders of the nations and governments, and to members and officials of the European institutions" has been signed so far by more than 80 "artists and cultural leaders". The list includes two Irish names, the author Roddy Doyle and the actress Fiona Shaw, but is dominated by musicians, including Claudio Abbado, Cecilia Bartoli, Pierre Boulez, Ricardo Muti, Anne-Sophie Mutter and Sofie von Otter.
A driving force behind the initiative is Bernard Foccroulle, managing director of La Monnaie, the opera house in Brussels. The artists call for EU governments to adopt a European constitution founded on cultural heritage.