Northern Dimension Partnership on Culture
Northern Dimension Partnership on Culture (NDPC) is an international partnership, established in 2010 by the European Commission and governments in the Northern Dimension area, and it includes 11 member countries, namely Norway, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Germany. The Secretariat of the NDPC is located in Riga, Latvia in the premises of the Nordic Council of Ministers’ Office in Latvia. The focus area of NDPC activities is culture and creative industries (CCIs) and improvement of their operating conditions in the region, by bridging the gap between public and private funding and strengthening cooperation between the CCIs and the business community. Furthermore, the NDPC aims to act as a complement to already existing organizations working with cultural cooperation and exchange, advocate for the potential of the CCIs, to provide a platform to facilitate dialogue and exchange of best practices and follow the policy development for CCIs.
NDPC main activities include: - advocating for the potential and needs of CCIs through European Commission and government channels; - informing about latest CCIs developments, new trends, methods and opportunities within and outside the region; - facilitating dialogue, exchange of best practice and support to adequate and modern CCI policies development via meetings, seminars and workshops that connect CCI operators, businesses, experts, policy makers and funding institutions; - bringing together different CCI players and providing a forum where people meet, share knowledge, ideas and solutions, learn, make friends, create and work together to make positive change; - elaborating studies and carrying out research vital for CCIs policy development support; - providing financial assistance to regional top-priority CCI initiatives that have a potential to make impact; - visioning future challenges and raising awareness of the stakeholders for future oriented CCIs operation and support policies. In 2010 the NDPC countries signed a Memorandum of Understanding setting out the modalities of establishing the Northern Dimension Partnership on Culture. The signing of the Legally Binding Agreement (LBA) on establishing the NDPC International secretariat is a priority task in 2016. The NDPC Secretariat is located in Riga, Latvia. After signing the LBA, NDPC will become an international organization.
Northern Dimension area and its countries have an interesting cultural heritage and history, cultural and linguistic diversity, a versatile cultural and artistic production, profound experiences in cultural cooperation and exchange, strongly developed creative entrepreneurship traditions and lot of professional networks in all sectors of society. NDPC as an organisation for collaboration in CCI in the wider Baltic Sea Region which has a political power to decide on development and change, as well as involving representatives of the Ministries of Culture with knowledge on political processes and various national and international initiatives, can help to more efficiently use cultural production and culture-based services and innovations, should promote Northern Dimension area and its culture for the people in the region and for wider international consumers and thus contribute to social development and economic growth. Through NDPC gaining new knowledge, the missing competences, contacts and international partners, regional CCI players can get more chances in order to become more innovative and competitive and collaboratively internationalize their work.
The Secretariat of NDPC and NDPC Steering Committee consisting of government representatives of member countries. The overall budget of NDPC for 2016 is 282 726 000 EUR, including the planned co-financing by EU to the operational activities of the Secretariat in the amount of 50 000 EUR and the financing that had not been used in 2015. The contract with European Commission had been signed at the end of December 2015. The budget can change during the year if an NDPC member raises its contribution or if additional funding is attracted from other sources. The budget as planned by the legally binding agreement is 110 000 EUR – if countries do not exceed the foreseen minimal contribution or if countries do not come up with voluntary contributions (countries that are part of Memorandum of Understanding and not of LBA).