Ποιειν Και Πραττειν - create and do

Investment priority

1. Product and service development, demand stimulation, clusters, open innovation through smart specialization and social innovation

Issue: How to sustain research together with artists, and how to open up the field to cultural studies and cultural impact assessments?

• Basically there is a lack of knowledge as to what is happening to culture during phases of transition, and thus leaves guidelines for investments in a weak position especially with regards to 'cultural adaptation'.

• The many breaks in cultural development in past and recent history have not been researched.

• Long standing negative preconceptions about Greece need to be changed e.g. never having gone through a period of Enlightenment although partially refuted by exhibitions in the Benaki Museum, so that more needs to be done in this direction to bring Greece into a comparable position with the cultural histories of other European countries.

• Research into Greek culture is needed since it has undergone tremendous changes since Ancient Times due to having been under various influences of both internal and external nature e.g. the influence of Surrealism upon poetry. This includes also impact of technological development upon society.

• For further development of cultural and creative industries, it is a question on how to link artistic actions with research. It is said in Greece, it is impossible to tap into this potential, since on the production side, there are missing businesses which could together with scientists be interested in developing with artists new products and product designs e.g. the Danish dance group 'Magic Moment' of Ingrid Kristensen does experiments with scent and audience development together with research on cognitive developments, and with a cement factory and architects further research into alternative use of cement as construction material by adopting the lightness of a dancer.

• Moreover, throughout the Greek education system, including universities, quality of teaching suffers due to not being linked enough with research.

• Also in the Information Society, new rules need to be developed to ensure information is validated by being able to refer to ongoing research e.g. health issues and what is made available online.

• A research centre for European Capitals of Culture should be established in Athens, as the first city to hold the ECoC title in 1985, and thereby link this with ongoing research about the impact of ECoC on culture-economy relationships.

• Link philosophy of science to epistemological clarification of key concepts as investment guide.

• Competitiveness and sustainable development need a new set of indicators to measure outcomes and impacts of investments, for future guidance.

Key issues:

• how can cultural resources be made available to enhance research centres, incubators and enterprises?

• how to link 'productivity of cultural' and creative industry to ongoing policy research development?

• how to examine cultural adaptation of national i.e. Greek culture to demands for 'cultural openness'?

• how cultural self-understanding can be linked to prerequisites for a modern economy to function?

Culture prompts creativity as part of social innovation in an anthropological sense. There is a need for investments in culture to provide the framework conditions (cultural infrastructures) for CCIs and cultural services.

National operational programmes

Official Indicators:

Use of computers in primary education; Number of schools and teachers per category of schools; Demographics of pupils; Demographics of pupils with special needs; Demographics of immigrants attending education; HEIs statistics; Distribution of GERD per type of performer;

Cultural indicators: quality of life and cultural well being, cultural participation

• Key question: how to develop a culture of anticipation of future needs and how to manage change?

• What cultural governance is needed to handle complex issues at multi-levels of responsibility.

• Research results made more accessible online but clarify copy right issue.

• Review research priorities of all research centres e.g. KEPE, Social Research Centre and Universities in relation to EU 2020 vision.

• Further cultural impact studies of operational programmes.

Support research in the creative industries e.g. design and art works.

• Support 'cultural innovation' to develop cooperative networks.

• Link 'action research' of Cultura 21 to sustainability and cultural indicators.

Regional projects

Official Indicators:

Distribution of pupils and students per level of education and region;

Regional indicators of education and training

Research into regional identity and sharing of values when it comes to specialize without necessarily all reproducing the same e.g. cultural tourism, in order to retain a cultural diversity

• Creation of platforms by involving action research done by artists to create 'biotope of ideas'

• Smart specialization with culture to form intelligible units.

• Research and studies for the development of the creative industries.

European Territorial Cooperation

• Perception of culture and cultural resources

• Regional branding to become more attractive

• Different modes of accessibilities to cultur

Investment priority

2. Enhancing access to and use and quality of information and communication technologies

Projects in POP (national level)

• Efforts to provide access to governmental information need to be improved and linked to citizens' participation.

• Digitalisation of content, collections at museums

• Creation of citizens' archives as part of memories of cities

• Cultural infrastructures and accessibilities of IT

Regions

Follow good practice e.g. in Crete – Forthnet, by relating

technological inducement for further going investments in culture e.g. development of regional libraries online

European Territorial Cooperation

• Cultural media centres with activities regarding e-inclusion (e. g. training programmes run by cultural centres in rural areas)

Investment priority

Enhancing the competitiveness of SMEs, the agricultural sector (for the EAFRD) and the fisheries and aquaculture sector (for the EMFF)

Issue: A key problem in Greece is that there exists no real entrepreneurial culture with managers of small, medium and large sized businesses willing to invest in long term enterprises. Generally speaking, there is a tendency to demand exuberant prices out of the wish to make money as quickly as possible and then to take these profits elsewhere. Only a link to culture can bring about long-term investments and such strategy to achieve a self-sustainable productive basis in all sectors (agricultural, fisheries, small and medium sized businesses). As this would reflect a true cultural diversity but thanks to the Structural Funds kept together by development schemes managing to integrate various factors, social and cultural cohesion can be achieved.

National Operational Programmes

Enhancing the

Competitiveness of SMEs

• Unlock EIB funds of 1 Billion by 2013 (600 Million due by end of 2012) for SME's (agreement signed in 2012 but release of funds has been slow due to poor credit rating).

• Further the role of creative and cultural industry in protecting and promoting cultural heritage (way to link up with culture).

• Overcome the negative reputation of cultural NGOs (damaged due to squandering of funds) and strengthen civil society's participation.

• Improve investment climate in Greece through cultural innovation and good practices by opening up culture to sharing of knowledge.

Regional Programmes

Need for international consultancies to ensure that projects with high demand can really be implemented.

Encourage investments in research centres and SME's development on islands to counter over dependency upon tourism.

Focus on cultural specialization strategy (typology of investments) by strengthening SME's structure and investments in culture.

Attica region aims to improve international attraction

Crete and Aegean islands excellent in cultural tourism.

Epirus – seeks focus in investments for cultural heritage.

European Territorial Cooperation

• Develop new cross-border market concepts based on models of cultural cooperation between different SME's to ensure that the area can meet bigger demands altogether: principle of work + knowledge sharing, while learning to market products on both sides of the border (logos of cultural adaptation in product development)

Investment priority

4. Supporting the shift towards a low-carbon economy in all sectors – energy sector

Issue: Such a shift is not a technical matter alone but a major cultural intervention - above all it needs cultural adaptation to a low-carbon economy. How then to alter carbon emission scheme in times of crisis, especially if the EU itself recognizes the scheme is not really working?

Given the general concept 'Green Economy' and the EU 2020 vision, a cultural consensus can be created that decreasing dependency upon fossil fuels is good for everyone but needs a change in daily practices.

Task: How to adapt to the privatization scheme or if that does not work out, how else can alternative models be developed and made available to attain both efficiency and less economic exploitation of public needs for energy?

Problem: the high fuel costs let already many Greek families freeze during the cold winter months or else they resort to a false consumption of other fuels.

National Operational Programmes

EU Said to Plan Debate on CO2-Auctions Delay in Mid-July

„The overall efficiency of electricity production is amongst the lowest in Europe. The energy sector is dominated by a few state-owned enterprises with low productivity and which still have a quasi-monopoly position in the market. Transmission system operators still need to be fully unbundled. ”

Source: EU Commission on 'Growth for Greece' (2012)

Adaptation of the economic models as proposed by the European Commission must be translated into the Greek cultural context before it can work.

Actions in 2012 (cf. §4.2 of the MoU):

„Privatisation of public gas and electricity companies this year will provide private sector investors with the opportunity to enter a huge new market, and increase the scope for major cost savings from efficiency gains in the former public companies. The separation of gas and electricity transmission system operation from generation and supply activities will increase the transparency of the sector, and facilitate competition through the entry of new market players.“

This change requires a debate as well about the possible privatization of electricity supply, since in Greece this would mean embracing an ideology not popular in large parts of society. Right now the tendency is to go in the opposite direction e.g. Syriza Party wants to nationalize OTE and reverse other privatization schemes.

Moreover besides efficiency, there is a matter of costs for both operators (entrepreneurs) and private consumers. Given solar energy, private production of electricity could be enhanced.

Regional Programmes

Include in regional specialization strategy energy self-sufficiency.

• Put regional economy on a par with energy supply system while work out differences between supply/demand at regional level

• Support energy saving on all cultural buildings as model.

• Thematize 'energy' as issue through cultural actions

• Set constraints for islands to limit number of cars and motorcycles and promote alternative energy sources

• Promote alternative transport systems e.g. regional bicycle network and/or public transport systems

European Territorial Cooperation

Cross-sectoral actions require a cultural consensus and not only technical-administrative innovations in order to enter a sustainable development path with the aim of achieving a low-carbon economy.

Investment priority

5. Promoting climate change adaptation and risk prevention and management

National Operational Programmes

• Upgrade civic protection and engage citizens in knowledge of Seismic related activities, Floods, Forest fires and desertification e.g. avoid illegal landfills, old power grid lines, etc.

• Implementation of Seveso II directive in industrial sector means how to prevent accidents and manage industrial waste.

• Promote construction of stone houses with natural cooling systems rather than needing air conditioners.

• Energy saving infrastructures to maintain overall systems.

• Use of artistic projects to thematize climate change to promote public awareness.

• Regulate and enforce building and planning laws in a consistent way with needs for cultural landscapes by setting clear constraints (architecture, roads, density of energy consuming functions)

Regional Programmes

Regions with islands retain transportation vehicles using fossil fuels

European Territorial Cooperation

• Develop joint ecological projects

Investment priority

6. Promoting the environment and promoting resource efficiency

Issue:

Clarify the term 'sustainable development' by developing besides ecological also cultural indicators.

• Lack of planning and arbitrary land use (illegal constructions) has led to an erosion of the environment – even in Natura 2000

National Operational Programmes

Indicators:

built on land / untouched nature

ecological balance and biodiversity

Accessibility of legislation with regards to planning, environmental protection and cultural planning maps.

• Cultural actions for conscious awareness raising for environment.

• Participate in EU legislation dealing with environment

• Adapt the Water directive 2000 to fit the diverse landscape of Greek islands and mainland.

• Further implement Bathing Water Directive to ensure quality of water at beaches since crucial as tourist destination.

• Engage in water management / stop illegal drilling and bring in agricultural sector for new water-saving initiatives.

• Fund projects promoting cultural planning and finance study at national level to establish a legal base for planning with reference to 'cultural landscapes' in Greece.

Review of planning law as implementation (interpretation) is contradicted by numerous studies at local and regional level, hence need for more consistency in planning system.

• Need the creation of common law to protect land like the sea having a cultural value for everyone to preserve and to promote 'untouched' or wild nature.

• Alter the terminology in planning by including beside urban and non-urban rural landscapes where no construction is allowed.

• Land registration register needed to monitor impact of development upon land e.g. in Greece not enough rain water can sicker into the ground to renew underground reservoirs due to too land built on.

Regional Programmes

Integrate cultural ecology plans in local agenda of every

community and focus on biodiversity, waste disposal, water management and air quality.

Upgrade Agenda 21 with Cultura 21 to ensure regional competence in environmental protection to attain cultural sustainability.

European Territorial Cooperation

• Pollution and damage to environment is a cross-border issue in need to be tackled through cooperation. Use land sculpture artists to introduce new forms of communication about the environment.

Investment priority

7. Promoting sustainable transport and removing bottleneckes in key network infrastructures

Issue:

No transportation culture exists 'consciously', although the way to behave in traffic is an expression of culture.

Basic issue here is the absence of any 'logistics' to anticipate blockages due to bottlenecks.

National Operational Programmes

Actions in 2012 (cf. §4.2 of the MoU):

The Transport Policy Paper (due date June 2012) that will set out the strategic and regulatory framework for the entire transport sector should be finalised.

The regulatory and operational functions of the Hellenic Civil Aviation Authority should be separated and funding provided for modern air traffic control equipment, the recruitment of qualified air traffic controllers and the contracting of modern slot allocation software.

The establishment of independent award authorities for rail passenger services should be completed.

• Culture includes attitudes and ways of moving about.

• Develop a new traffic and transportation culture which includes such logistics which help anticipate bottlenecks and give solution by providing clear cultural orientations e.g. public art works at major junctures to alter the anonymity of transport routes e.g. aesthetics of Athens Metro has helped people adopt the otherwise neutral technical system and call it the train that runs through museums.

• Time and distances are related in a way that reliability is made possible to reach destinations in time (calculable time needed to cover a certain distance – a lot has been done for inter city connection while within cities this is not the case).

• Safety and transportation need to be improved on roads, rail and sea best done by developing a concept of traffic culture. That includes removal of advertisement signs and other messages which just confuse drivers.

• Reduce costs of vandalism and other damages to transport stock by letting local people adopt transport modes.

• Accessibility for disabled or people with special needs.

• Reduce costs of transport to islands and remote destinations by creating traffic pools.

• Limit construction of airports while improving railway to safeguard islands from overflow of people (sustainability).

• Base transportation on real needs and do away with tolls as they increase costs of moving about.

Regional Programmes

Review recent regional reforms since large-scale governance has impact upon local places: risk to lose diversity when local ship building industry becomes of a larger marina for the entire area.

Develop a transport scheme for islands to reduce dependency upon the car.

Link transport with land use and urban development plan to contain building sprees within the urban zone.

Use cultural planning to develop scenic routes which safeguard biodiversity, wetlands and historical sites.

European Territorial Cooperation

Border crossing procedures and agreements to facilitate freight flows on corridor X should be

reviewed and border closures abandoned.

• Re-open land route through former Yugoslavia to reduce transport costs for goods brought to and exported from Greece.

• Integrated development in border regions means accessibility combined with preservation of natural landscapes

Investment priority

8. Promoting employment and supporting labour mobility

Issue:

high unemployment (20% generally and above 50% amongst the youth)

Forms of bad labour practices and extreme exploitation in black economy sector, but also elsewhere with only civil services jobs protected in the past against discrimination and illegal practices.

Withholding payments and arbitrary payments meant living and working with uncertainty, so that 'morality of payment' is a key issue.

Established society exploiting especially in the cultural sector those dedicated with high proficiency to work for free and never receiving after work was completed recognition for work having been done, as families with name and other connections would appropriate everything under their name.

Missing are key concepts of a cultural economy to link productivity with creativity at the level of human self consciousness.

National Operational Programmes

Actions in 2012:

More effective use of the available European Social Fund resources to put in place a fully-functioning framework to support the social economy and social enterprises as well as the key drivers for a job-rich recovery and to address the multi-faceted integration needs of vulnerable groups.

„The Commission is working actively with the Greek authorities on ways of tackling the extremely high levels of youth unemployment. This includes taking a fresh look at the use of EU structural funds in Greece and at how to help the Greek authorities to reallocate them to

projects that will make the biggest difference to growth and jobs in the shortest time.“

• Competitiveness is being attained by lowering wages to cut labour costs, but this means less motivation and a reorientation in terms of reward for work done. If culture gives recognition to work done, what does this mean for payment scheme? (see archaeologists, but also low payment for many people, including highly-qualified persons while overpaid people in privileged positions reinforce fictitious hierarchies).

• Promote ability to work together on common solutions by identifying tasks ahead based on an ethical vision of social justice and equal chances of employment e.g. collaborative learning processes.

• In cultural sector undo damage to much being done unpaid (dancers at National Dance School but not recognized as unemployed – the holes in social security, pension and insurance against accidents).

Start-up Greece – Entrepreneurship – promotion through the priority project 'Alternative Tourism' (specific culture of commercial interest) – overcome the problem of closed shops e.g. tourist guides – alternative ways of improving tourist services – qualification chances (cooking – intercultural learning since in kitchens diverse people end up working together – interestingly enough those with lesser language skills end up doing manual or semi manual work) – on job training for youth – employers tend to hire only those with less or no education as others could demand higher pay – counter-productive impact of austerity measures.

Regional Programmes

Use creative and cultural industries for work to be done

in cultural sector – reliability of deliveries and overall excellence of work in need to be done to strengthen regional competence (strategy of specialization)

Investment in labour pools to do joint work e.g. creating

cultural landscape – revival of traditional jobs next to modern jobs – various kinds of cultural tourism to discover cultural specificity of region

European Territorial Cooperation

• Investments needed in strengthening border areas

Investment priority

9. Promoting social inclusion and combating poverty

Issue:

General poverty and social exclusion on increase due to austerity measures – need to strengthen social security (health, pension, education, cultural participation) – there is as well a 'poverty of experience' which stands in contradiction to the EU 2020 vision with emphasis upon an 'economy of experience'.

Modern life and work forms based on technology bring about a sense of deprivation with consequences like cognitive disabilities and in general a lack of common-sense orientation. This is reflected in what is not culture so much as a mixture of sports, entertainment and image-manipulation by the media.

To deal with poverty and social inclusion, a sense of social justice must be restored and measures taken which counter the growing imbalances between rich and poor people.

Costs for moving about are too high and this hinders the mobility of those with deprived incomes although key for getting jobs.

National Operational Programmes

Indicators: people at risk to fall below poverty line - literacy level – distance to recognizable and full qualification in terms of job market – adaptation skills and cultural competence

• Create and support social agencies and community structures to uphold social networks.

• Design and implement cultural interventions in deprived areas.

• Overcome sharp division between EU experts and ordinary citizens by providing clear information and motivation for work with European dimension.

• Enhance levels of participation by gaining in social competence (conflict resolution, cultural well-being, sharing of values).

Regional Programmes

Social commitment to overcome class division in terms of land use and accessibility to various resources – creative hubs and training centres – overcoming social isolation in remote areas – community centres with mixture of functions to integrate different tasks (library, research, social functions etc. - Kamilari: light house beacon) – review of Development Agencies and Private Consultancies in relationship to Municipal, Regional and National Agencies to bring about better coordination.

European Territorial Cooperation

• Inclusion of disabled in daily life – cultural infrastructures and accessibilities (human resources, employment, technical development, perception of intangible cultural assets) – bring about a greater international dimension and openness for cross-border cooperation

Investment priority

10. Investing in education, skills and lifelong learning

Issue: Education and life long learning

An attempt was made to reform the educational sector in 2011, but bad reputation of public system prompts existence of 'shadow education' system, i.e. Frontistirio schools with high cost for parents and hard test for children. Need to upgrade initial vocational training and vocational educational systems but link of education to job market can prove difficult in times when businesses are closing down. Strengthening human capital in order to promote research and innovation, but need knowledge base independent from political influence. Lifelong Learning as system not really established in Greece. Need more open universities and adult-specific training programmes. Some teachers have started bottom-up initiatives to create synergies between different courses and bring the arts into the school. Right now the only programme in that direction is the Melina Mercouri one giving teachers extra qualification chances but not official part of training for teaching at school.

National Operational Programmes

Improve link between business and education

Vocational courses

Adults’ entry into education at higher level – further qualification for professionals

Two key problems need to be overcome:

1. shadow education sector means parents spend over 5 bln Euros on extra education despite their children attending public schools²

2. lack of art and cultural subjects in schools despite artistic side part of personality development

• Dialectic of secularisation is needed to free education from religion, education right now under the control of the Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs.

• Improve investment in public schools by offering better training for teachers – arts, digital literarcy, cultural competences (art history: ancient but also contemporary arts)

• Alter Pan-Hellenic national examination system which requires that students attend ‘frontistiro’ schools for extra lessons costing parents a huge amount of money

• Influence of foreign schools in the educational sector puts Greece into semi-colonial context e.g. American school recruitment of future elite (friendly attitude / consumption of goods made in these countries).

• Support bottom-up efforts to create synergies in approach to teaching various subjects together e.g. language, poetry and painting.

• Altogether a too general orientation towards business and little about policy research (educational agreement with other Member States – Euridyce and consensus methods after Bologna – is the university reform process really working?)

Regional Programmes

Extend programme of Lifelong learning

European Territorial Cooperation

• Cross-cultural learning programmes and how to integrate this into normal curriculum.

Investment priority

11. Enhancing institutional capacity and ensuring an efficient public administration

Issue: Public administration

A key problem of the administration is that it lacks political independence and therefore misses out in continuity of administrative practice. Too many selection procedures are not according to qualifications but depend upon political connections. With 1 million civil servants for 10 million people, it means also an over extension of services without any accountable productivity.

Yet the austerity measures have also meant the loss of experienced administrators (see ‘Appeal of Archaeologists’) and an unnecessary slimming of administrative branches where more workers would be needed. Also the interplay between outside experts not knowledgeable in legislative procedures and civil servants with vast knowledge suffers because the latter stay deeply hidden inside the administration.

Also public services are not perceived independently from 'politics' and thus it is not understanding that after passing a law, it has to be translated into an administrative law before policy measures can be followed up and implemented.

Signs of corruption have been noted everywhere but are often not identified as such e.g. public procurement allowing that the original cost estimate can be exceeded by 50% provided that the civil servant in charge signs, was made into law and followed-up by the civil service receiving monthly extra payments to ensure the signature. This meant both construction company and state administration opted for public works costing more than normal, and thereby burdening both state and society.

There is too much favouritism and arbitrariness involved in administrative-based decision-making processes.

National Operational Programmes

„A strong inter-governmental Ministerial coordination capacity is needed to implement complex reform processes.” - EU Commission Communication, 'Growth for Greece'

Indicators:

Governance based on trust

Citizen participation

Transparency of decisions

Legal system

Responsiveness to needs

Reliability of services

• For the Structural Funds bring Ministry of Culture back into negotiations (right now only represented by the Tourism section of the Ministry).

Re-introduce Operational Programme for culture as was the case in the 2000 – 2006 funding period.

Improve horizontal coordination of all managing authorities and ensure managing authorities link up with thematic services in all the Ministries.

• To resolve issue of Ministry of Culture versus various OP with different voices deliberating, for future implementation purposes create independent Cultural Council for horizontal and vertical coordination of Structural Funds for all cultural actions.

• Important is to secure and valorize outcomes and to make cultural impact assessment of all actions related to Structural Funds (in addition to environmental impact assessment requirements and in linkage to planning / land use policy).

• Ensure that cultural institutions e.g. museums include experts of other cultures to collect and interpret contributions to community life by all (anti-discriminatory statute needed and adherence to Europe as 'intercultural space').

• Promote international institutions in Athens and elsewhere to open up Greek culture to international standards e.g. re-start and upgrade Documentation Centre of European Capitals of Culture (started in Athens 2007 but closed in 2009 due to financial shortages) while ensuring independence from political influence.

• Overcome limits of sole national cultural orientation e.g. the Municipal Radio Station in Athens used to broadcast in 26 languages but now operates only as Internet Radio.

• Alter institutional context of culture in Greece by introducing tax law to free funds for the arts and culture (tax exemption)

Follow-up Joint Overall Statistical Greek Action Plan (JOSGAP) (Actions in 2012 - cf. §5 of the MoU) by upgrading cultural statistics through EKEVI working jointly with Eurostat.

Regional Programmes

ESF-funded "Administrative Reform" programme should be implemented at regional-local level

Learn to decentralize power in terms of the recent

regional reforms (Law 3852/2010) with first elections on

7^th and 4^th of Nov. 2010 and link up with agendas of local

communities – creation of communication platforms to ensure citizens being informed and can participate

Need to relate city and region in terms of cultural governance.

Evaluate local self-government and reform of Cohesion Fund since 2009 in terms of

• spatial plan (land use)

• human resources

• revenues and expenditures (tax base)

European Territorial Cooperation

• Cross-border cooperation supported by viable cultural networks and exchange of information (confidence-building measures) and capitalize on cultural services.

Territorial governance and inter-governmental administrative practices require a common cultural base for shaping attitudes and policies towards outstanding issues.