The ministers of the EU and EFTA member states will be invited to exchange views in two important debates. The first of them is related to the opportunities and challenges of integrating cultural policy into wider policy agenda, the need for cultural policy change to benefit culture and the creative sectors and furthermore to enable culture and creativity to become a driving element in other policy fields. The second debate on the challenges of ensuring media freedom and pluralism in the time of the convergence of the audiovisual and media worlds will address the impact of the changing technological environment on media pluralism, freedom of expression and access to information in the digital age. Delegations will be asked to consider if an EU level response ensuring media freedom and pluralism in the digital age is needed and what this response should be in specific terms.
The accompanying programme of the meeting includes an invitation to the Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania, the royal residence of the rulers of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania which was completely demolished in the early 1800s and reconstructed from scratch over the last decade. All Delegations will be invited also to the Užutrakis Manor Estate near Vilnius, which is part of the Trakai Historical National Park, distinguished by a unique combination of cultural and natural heritage.
