Cultural leadership at supranational level

Abstract

Following the development of the EU cultural policy agenda since 1990, this paper discusses the role and use of culture as an instrument of influence and highlights how it serves as a means for the European Union to exercise power and assert a leading position in the European and global arena. The author uses key funding schemes and cultural policy and diplomacy documents to highlight the relation of cultural leadership with instrumentalisation of culture at supranational level, within the process of making and breaking of Europe.