The Cultural Open Method of Coordination: A New but Different OMC?

Abstract

This Article focuses on the use of the OMC in the field of culture – a particularly sensitive policy field for the Member States. The cultural OMC was conceived as a flexible, non-binding and voluntary framework for structuring Member States’ cultural cooperation and fostering the exchange of best practice. The analysis seeks to deepen the understanding of the cultural OMC as a framework for policy coordination. It examines the origins of the process and the arguments that supported it, as well as its formation, operation and development through three distinct cycles (2008-2010; 2011-2014; 2015-2018). It also places the cultural OMC within the broader framework of EU cultural policy and juxtaposes it with other coordination mechanisms pertaining directly or indirectly to culture. In doing so, the Article investigates the specificities of the cultural OMC and testifies to the broader set of processes that currently seek to coordinate Member States’ culture policies.