ARTICLE 128 IN THE TREATY OF MAASTRICHT: HARBINGER OF A NEW EUROPEAN CULTURAL POLICY?
Nicoleta LAŞAN
Vasile Goldiş Western University of Arad
Faculty of Humanistic, Political, and Administrative Sciences
Tel.: 004-074292114 E-mail: nicoclau2000@yahoo.com
Abstract
The European Union started to regard culture as an important factor in building a political union only recently. Although the Treaty of Rome, which established the European Economic Community, contained few provisions related to culture and which would allow actions to be taken in this sensitive area, the Community began since the 1970s to get involved in cultural affairs. The Maastricht Treaty was the first legal document to establish clear competences in the field of culture at the supranational level, through the inclusion of article 128. As there is no consensus in the literature on the impact of article 128 on the European cultural policy, the aim of this paper is to highlight the main arguments in favor of seeing the article as bringing something new or as limiting itself to acknowledge the developments undertaken so far.
Keywords: European Union, culture, Treaty of Maastricht, European Commission.