Speech by the General Secretary of AKEL A.Kyprianou at the meeting with Cultural agencies/bodies and people of Culture
“Peace” Local Club of the People’s Movement of the Left, Plati Refugee Settlement, Municipality of Aglantzia
AKEL C.C. Press Office, 19th April 2021, Nicosia
I welcome you all to our meeting today. Thank you for accepting our invitation to discuss two very important issues that have come to the fore in recent years. Namely, the bill for the establishment of a Deputy Ministry of Culture and the bill for the professional and social certification of the status of cultural artists-creators.
What we are primarily seeking is to hear your own views, so that we can elaborate our position when the bills will be discussed in the new Parliament.
On this occasion, we reiterate AKEL’s longstanding demand for the institutional safeguarding of the Participation of Cultural Institutions/Agencies in the competent Ministry’s decision-making processes, as President Anastasiades himself pledged to do in two of his election programs.
We also welcome the active intervention of the people of Culture, Letters and Arts and their more than justified demand for the provision of effective state support measures, so that they can address, as much as possible, the huge problems accumulated by the Covi-19 pandemic.
Unfortunately, whatever measures have been taken by the government, they have not been able to cover in the slightest the big losses in the incomes of those employed in the field of Culture as a result of the implementation of the relevant protocols. The uncertainty about a speedy return to the pre-pandemic situation makes new support programs imperative.
On the issue of the Deputy Ministry of Culture
As AKEL, we welcomed the decision of the Council of Ministers on July 7, 2020, to establish a Deputy Ministry of Culture, stressing, among other things, that: “The announcement doesn’t go far enough. What needs to be done is the implementation of n overall plan, with a vision, innovations and effective structures free from pathogens of the past. At the same time, there is a need to significantly increase the funds allocated for cultural creation, mainly for Cypriot artists/art workers, but also for the construction of the necessary cultural infrastructures.”
We also underlined that AKEL, in order to be able to take a conclusive position, will wait for the submission of the government proposal, studying all the elements that will structure the Ministry of Culture, with the reminder that AKEL is willing to participate in a structured dialogue. This position was repeated last September in the meeting we had with the competent Minister.
But what has really happened to the public consultation? The Minister of Education and Culture Mr. Prodromou, did not under any circumstances want to have a substantive dialogue us. From what I have been informed, he did not discuss neither with other Cultural Institutions or Organizations involved. In the meetings, the only references made by the competent Minister, was that the Deputy Ministry of Culture will be financially neutral, that is to say, there will be no increase in the funds allocated for any new needs that may be created and that the Department of Antiquities and the Department of Cypriot Handicrafts will be included in it, apart from the Cultural Services.
Nor the did the Minister even ask for the written positions of the Institutions and Departments involved, something that is recorded in the explanatory memorandum that accompanied the Bill recently submitted to the House of Representatives. The belated submission of the Bill, just a few days ago, did not permit a substantive discussion in the competent Parliamentary Education Committee, with the result that the Bill was transferred for discussion in the new Parliament that will emerge from next month’s parliamentary elections.
In essence, after a first reading of the Bill, this does not meet the goals and aspirations described above. In the Bill, no reference is made to the Organizational Structure of the Deputy Ministry. Serious political, constitutional and technical problems also arise from the inclusion of the Department of Antiquities in the Deputy Ministry. It also does not include key cultural institutions, such as the Symphony Orchestra Foundation. It does not cover all forms of Art and any reference to the goals and aspirations of the Deputy Ministry is insufficient and vague. At the same time, there is no Strategic Plan regarding key services to be provided in the coming years, while expediencies and ideological concepts haven’t been avoided, such as the absence of any reference to important historical periods in Cyprus, except those of the Hellenistic and Byzantine periods.
At this point and regarding the decision to transfer the Department of Antiquities to the Ministry of Culture, I want to stress that, as AKEL, we are against this decision because in addition to the serious technical and operational issues that arise, there are also serious dangers of a political character. As everyone knows, according to the Constitution of the Republic of Cyprus, the management of the Antiquities belongs to the state and is not divided between the Greek Cypriot and the Turkish Cypriot community. With the Cyprus problem unresolved, any unilateral actions that would change the administrative responsibility of the Antiquities will give an alibi to the pseudo-state in the occupied areas to proceed with new separatist actions, this time to the detriment of the Antiquities in the occupied territories.
Professional and Social Certification of the Artist-Creator Status
The conditions as they are evolving also due to the pandemic’s painful economic consequences, demand the acceleration of the submission of the Bill for the Professional and Social Certification of a Cultural Artist’s Status. Virtually all of the problems that preceded the pandemic were highlighted in a more intense way. The government’s austerity policies in the field of Culture too have further aggravated the situation. It is worth mentioning that the government’s first political act on Culture was the termination of the allowance for cultural artists that was established during the Demetris Christofias government. That is precisely why there is no room for any other delay in the proposal that the government must submit to the competent bodies and political parties for the start of a meaningful dialogue. Any discussion should not take place in a vacuum. The relevant detailed reports of the European Parliament, the decisions of UNESCO and the laws that apply in a number of other countries must be taken into account. There are also Cypriot State Laws that can be used.
For AKEL, all cultural/intellectual creators and professional artists must be in a position to live with dignity with the work they produce. Unfortunately, despite the increasing production and dissemination of works of art and literature, despite the growing economic importance of fields related to Culture, nevertheless, the overwhelming majority of those employed in the field of Culture still live in precarious conditions, in conditions of unemployment, underemployment and deprivation of basic human rights.
In many cases, the socio-economic situation of cultural artists is tragic, while social protection does not exist. In whatever field they work, taking into account the nature, difficulties and special working conditions, artists must have regulated employment relations and guaranteed benefits such as unemployment benefit, participation in the National Health Scheme, sick leave, maternity leave, adequate pensions and participation in state benefits. For the above, it must be borne in mind that due to the nature of their activities, artists cannot be classified in the traditional social insurance system and tax sense.
Also extremely important is the attribution of copyright and related rights, as enshrined worldwide, in successive Treaties, such as the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works of 1861 and the Treaty of Rome of 1961.
Closing my presentation, I want to emphasize that as AKEL we will continue to place Culture very high in our political activity.
AKEL will always be on the side of the people of Culture because it recognizes their contribution to society and the fundamental role they play in improving people’s quality and their contribution to the struggles for freedom, democracy and social justice, as well as their contribution to lead society forward, to qualatively more advanced levels.
