Education, Youth, Culture and Sport Council

Monday 21st May 2018 Written Statements

[The Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (Matt Hancock)]

The Education, Youth, Culture and Sport (EYCS) Council will take place in Brussels on 22 and 23 May 2018. Lord Ashton of Hyde will represent the UK at the Youth session of this Council (on 22 May). The UK’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the EU will represent the UK on 23 May for the meetings on culture & audio-visual and sport.

Youth

This session of the Council will begin with the adoption of Council conclusions on the role of young people in building a secure, cohesive and harmonious society in Europe. The Council will then seek to adopt Council conclusions on the role of youth in addressing the demographic challenges within the European Union.

Also tabled for this session is a policy debate on the future priorities for EU youth policy.

In addition, there will be information from the Commission on European Youth Together, followed by information from the Belgian and French delegations on the Franco-Belgian declaration of Ministers responsible for youth on the prevention of violent radicalisation.

Culture/Audio-visual

This meeting will begin with the adoption of Council conclusions on the need to bring cultural heritage to the fore across policies in the EU.

There will be also be a policy debate on the long term vision for the contribution of culture to the EU after 2020, in particular looking forward to the next multiannual financial framework (2021-2027).

Additionally, there will be a public deliberation of current legislative proposals. For this, the Council will first welcome information from the German delegation on the directive amending directive (2006/112/EC) as regards rates of value added tax-actively engaging in negotiations from a cultural policy perspective. In extension to this, there will be information from the French delegation on the regulation on the import of cultural goods. No legislative decisions will be made in these debates, so there are no implications for the parliamentary scrutiny reservation.

Information will be provided by the Lithuanian and Luxembourg delegations, on their respective hosting of the European capitals of culture 2022.

Sport

The sport session of EYCS will begin with the adoption of Council conclusions on promoting the common values of the EU through sport. This will be followed by a policy debate on the commercialisation of elite sports and the sustainability of the European Model of Sport.

The EU member states representative in the World Anti-Doping Agency Foundation Board, will present information on the foundation board meeting on 16-17 May. The French delegation will present information on the informal meeting of the EU Minister for Sport (Paris, 31 May 2018) signing of a declaration for a Europe of Sport on the horizon of the 2024 Paris Olympic and Paralympic games.

Other

There will be information from the Austrian delegation, setting out their work programmes as the incoming presidency, for the second half of 2018.

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