2009: European Year of Creativity and Innovation
(2009 01 16 11:36)
The Czech Presidency of the EU and European Commission launched the European Year of Creativity and Innovation 2009 on Wednesday, 7 January with the slogan “Imagine. Create. Innovate”. The Year was inaugurated during a ceremony in Prague by the Commission President José Manuel Barroso and the Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek. At the accompanying launch conference, the Ambassadors for the Year presented a report on creativity and innovation in the EU, whose message is that investment in education and in the skills and creative capacity of Europe should be the top priority of EU institutions and governments.
Special ambassadors to the European Year, who attended the launch, welcomed the commissioner's call to make additional funding available to improve the bloc's competitiveness, suggesting that it should be spent on issues such as human capital creation, productivity growth and environmental protection. As the economic crisis continues to get worse, creativity and innovation are key to strengthening Europe's competitiveness and must remain on the EU agenda beyond the current European Year. Throughout 2009, the European Commission will jointly organize, along with the current Czech and upcoming Swedish EU presidencies, campaigns, events and initiatives at EU, national, regional and local level. The funding will come from existing Community programmes.
The seminar "Creativity and Innovation in cultural cooperation projects" organised by the University of Barcelona in close partnership with ENCATC (European Network of Cultural Administration Training Centre) will take place on 26 January 2009. This event aims to think about the existing mechanisms in the European politics and programs and to debate about creative entrepreneurship in the public and private cultural organisations.
Read more on website: http://www.create2009.europa.eu/