The study „The Economy of Culture in Europe“ commissioned by the European Commission in 2006 has been the starting point of a quick political revaluation of the Creative Industries in Europe and its member states. This development started 2007 with the decision of the European cultural ministers in Berlin to place emphasis on the Creative Industries during the German EC-Presidency, was followed by the conference “Cultural and Creative Industries in Europe” in May and finally resulted in the council conclusions for the Creative Industries on May 24th/25th.

Furthermore the European Commission adopted the first ever European strategy for culture, also implementing a new role for the Creative Industries. In the future, policies in the cultural field will involve the cultural sector more strongly, ranging from individual artists and performers to the creative and cultural industries… The European Commission therefore seeks to introduce improved structures for dialogue and partnership with these stakeholders through a new "Cultural Forum".

Welcome to the first European Newsportal on Creative Industries!
                                            
Our aim is to report on creative industries from all member states through well informed local correspondents who keep in view the European perspective. We started in May 2007 and currently have correspondents from Germany, France, Norway, Sweden, Poland and Hungary.

We are providing a newsletter on creative industries in Europe, which is published every four weeks. Registration is free.

Since 2003 we are organizing the German National Conference on Creative Industries in cooperation with the Friedrich Naumann Foundation. We promote the economic and social impact and importance of Creative Industries to a large public. 2005 we started our German Newsportal, on which we publish every 48 hours the latest news and events dealing with Creative Industries. In May 2007 the Office for Cultural Policy and Economy was responsible for the programme of the conference „Cultural and Creative Industries in Europe" which we organised in cooperation with the Friedrich Naumann Foundation and with the support of the German Foreign Office, the European Union, the State of Rhineland-Palatinate and the Berlin Senate. This Berlin-Conference was officially part of the German EC-Presidency 2007.

We are also doing research on the market mechanisms of cultural and creative goods. Bernd Fesel teaches at the Universities of Bonn, Hagen and Berlin and is the author of articles in different newspapers. Since 2005 we have been publishing the Yearbook Creative Industries for Germany (2005 and 2006) and for Europe (scheduled in German and English for September 2007).