EUobserver takes a deep dive into the workings and new chairs of every single European Parliament committee for the new 2024-2029 session, in a series of articles first published in our print magazine of October 2024
“At a time when freedom of science, the media and the arts can no longer be taken for granted, it will be up to our committee to stand up for this,” the 39-year-old neophyte MEP Nela Riehl tells EUobserver.
Riehl ran as second candidate on Volt’s pan-European list (they sit in the European Parliament with the Greens/EFA), despite not being active in politics until the year before the 9 June European Parliament elections. She was also the only black candidate on any German ballot list – and she is the only black committee chair.
The committee on culture and education (CULT) is mainly responsible for cultural aspects of the EU, education, youth, sports and leisure and media policy.
Under the previous mandate, it doubled the budget of the international student exchange programme Erasmus+ and was pivotal in developing the European Media Freedom Act, which protects news publishers' legal status in society.
“The area of education in particular offers the opportunity to strengthen the resilience of the population,” Riehl said.
The young MEP has her work cut out for her – the latest PISA survey educational performance showed a dramatic drop among students in the 22 EU member states included, with the “decline in mathematics performance .. three times greater than any previous consecutive change.”
And 24 member states are experiencing a persistent shortage of teachers, an issue the directorate-general for internal policies recently recommended to CULT to “develop a comprehensive plan to tackle the issue.”
It also suggested focusing on increasing the democratic participation of young people, including the most vulnerable groups, including “through increased use of digital platforms.”
Improving youth housing availability and affordability is raised as another potential policy area, with a quarter of young Europeans living in overcrowded housing, or with their parents.
When it comes to culture and media, the directorate-general also provided recommendations – and concerns – for the upcoming legislative term for CULT.
The overview and future perspectives report for the cultural and media sectors requested by CULT and published in July 2024 states that the EU’s strategic agenda for 2024-2029 “largely overlooks the role” that the cultural and creative sectors can play in “realising its priorities.”
It points to several “weights of the past”, or obstacles, that stand in the way of “cross-sectoral collaborations and arts-driven transformation processes”, including the lack of long-term funding, precarious economic conditions of people in the creative sector and technological developments that affect the way they do and disseminate their work.
The report therefore recommends that CULT takes a role in creating a more comprehensive and holistic approach to support the creative and cultural sectors – mainly by helping to coordinate actions between different EU institutions and with other committees.
Riehl seems to grasp the importance, stating that “culture, education, media and sport are areas that directly affect citizens. I hope that in five years they will say that there has been progress here.”
The CULT coordinators are: Zoltan Tarr (EPP, Hungary), Hannes Heide (S&D, Austria), Catherine Griset (PfE, France), Lara Magoni (ECR, Italy), Laurence Farreng (Renew, France), Diana Riba (Greens/EFA, Spain), Nikos Pappas (Left, Greece), and Zsuzsanna Borvendég (ESN, Hungary).
Alejandro Tauber is Publisher of EUobserver. He is Ecuadorian, German, and American, but lives in Amsterdam. His background is in tech and science reporting, and was previously editor at VICE's Motherboard and publisher of TNW.
Alejandro Tauber is Publisher of EUobserver. He is Ecuadorian, German, and American, but lives in Amsterdam. His background is in tech and science reporting, and was previously editor at VICE's Motherboard and publisher of TNW.