The Cultural Open Method of Coordination

According to Articles 2(5) and 6 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), culture forms part of the policy areas in which the European Union (EU or the Union) shall have competence to carry out actions that ‘support, coordinate or supplement’ the actions of the member states, without superseding national competences. On the basis of Article 167 TFEU, the Union has engaged for years in what should essentially be seen as supporting action in the realm of culture through various funding tools, devised to encourage cultural cooperation between the member states. In light of Article 167(4) TFEU, the Union has also sought to cope with the cultural implications of its various policies (Psychogiopoulou, 2008).