The EU won the Olympics, the World Cup...and now an Oscar

The EU won the 2006 and 2010 World Cups in football (at least according to Romani Prodi and Jean-Claude Trichet, so it has to be true).

It also won the 2008 Olympics, according to highly credible EU-funded sources.

Now, it has upped its game yet another notch and raked in the film world's greatest prize - an Oscar.

The "King’s Speech”, which won several Oscars at last night's ceremony, apparently received €562,000 in “distribution support” from the EU’s Media Programme. Stopping just short of "there are a few people that I want to thank...", Androulla Vassiliou, the European commissioner in charge of cultural issues, wasted little time in claiming the EU's share of the credit (in what the FT Brussels blog labels "an acceptance speech"),

"What a great night for the European film industry and the Media programme. Europe loves cinema and the world loves our films. This shows that the European film industry can compete with the best."

After such an accomplishment, all eyes now turn to Euro 2012 (the football tournament, not the currency), where we're told the EU has an excellent chance of repeating its record of success.

Questionable EU priorities

On Friday, the Commission opened up a new fund of €1 million for think tanks and NGOs to further research how to "promote active European Citizenship".

The €1 million fund comes under the 'Europe for Citizens' project, which has a colossal seven year budget of €215 million (2007-2013) and is projected to cost €32.5 million in 2010 alone. As we've argued many times before, these kinds of funding streams are shamelessly biased towards groups which more or less share the Commission’s political agenda of further integration and/or defending the EU status quo.

And sure enough, the project description openly admits that also these fresh funds are designed for organisations which promote “an ever-closer Europe”.

The core objectives of this latest proposal include:

(a) to foster action, debate and reflection related to European citizenship and democracy, shared values, common history and culture through the activities and cooperation of think tanks and within civil society organisations at European level;

The emphasis on democracy is not a bad thing, but is, as ever, ironic. Most citizens across Europe don’t particularly want an elite-driven ever-closer union, artificially created by like-minded bureaucrats in Brussels; and most governments in Europe are forced to take tough decisions on spending, including cutting down on vanity projects – knowing that they will face their electorates and taxpayers for every spending priority they make.

This self-reflecting contradiction in the EU’s communication/citizenship/we-are-the-world spending programmes hasn’t dawned on the Commission yet.

And the European Parliament LUX prize goes to...

Yes, it's that time of year again: the European Parliament has announced its ten nominations to receive the prestigious European Parliament LUX film prize.

An EP press release informs us that:

The LUX Prize (in Latin, lux means light), was established in 2007, as a tangible symbol of the European Parliament’s commitment to the European film industry and its creative endeavours. No matter what individual, historical or social issue it illustrates, each film in the LUX Prize Official Selection gives a glimpse of Europeans — their lives, their convictions, their doubts, and their quest for identity.

To be eligible to the 2010 LUX Prize Official Selection, films must meet the following requirements: fiction or animation films or creative documentaries; a 60-minute minimum running time; illustrating or questioning the founding values of our European identity, Europe’s cultural diversity or providing insights into the debate on the EU integration process; productions or co-productions eligible for support from the MEDIA programme

Who possibly has the time and dedication to sift through at least 10 hours of films "providing insights into the debate on the EU integration process" we hear you cry.

Well no need to worry because the films will be shown in the European Parliament's Brussels premises from 26 October to 19 November. MEPs will then vote for the winning film, and the 2010 LUX Prize will be awarded on 24 November by the President of the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

The lucky winners will benefit from financial support to pay for subtitling in the 23 official languages of the EU, and for producing a 35 mm print for each EU Member State or supporting the subsequent DVD release.

For some reason the press release neglects to tell us how much of the EP's €2.25m budget for the "Organisation of seminars, symposia and cultural activities" will be spent on this essential contribution to European culture.

Play one we know!

For those of you that didn't know, the European Commission is now in the art business, using taxpayers money to fund various culture projects to promote "greater intercultural dialogue" and various other abstract goals.

Of the projects chosen for funding in 2010, surely the most bizarre is the European Joysticks Orchestra (pictured), which received £50,872 to compose new works, host concerts and train teachers in the “art” of creating music using the computer device.

Click here for a youtube video of the Orchestra's work.

Other projects include "Exchange Radical Moments", which aims to organise an event in 2011 featuring “simultaneously scattered actions, images and interventions [which] will sparkle and ignite like flares across the European landscape, leaving ephemeral but direct and uncensored residue”.

Likewise, the European Laboratory for Hip Hop Dance will net £44,931 of taxpayers’ cash to “improve the recognition and visibility of hip hop dance in Europe” and “encourage connectivity between hip hop artists”.

Now we don't want to be accused of being party-poopers - if people feel that government should be funding cultural projects that is fine. But the problem with the European Commission is that there is no acountability. No one to punish at the ballot box if you feel your money has been spent unwisely.

And quite frankly, judging by the sort of projects the Commission has decided to back, DG Culture is hardly full of budding Charles Saatchis.