The Compendium of Cultural Policies and Trends in Europe is a unique on-line information and monitoring system which provides easy access to data, facts, trends and summaries of current debates on national cultural policy developments and trends in Europe.

This transnational project was initiated by the Steering Committee for Culture of the Council of Europe and has been running as a joint venture with the European Institute for Comparative Cultural Research (ERICarts) since 1998. The system is updated on an annual basis by a unique community of practice made up of independent cultural policy researchers, NGOs and national government representatives.

The content of the Compendium cultural policy country profiles address the priority issues of the Council of Europe including those set by the Warsaw Summit of Heads of State (2005): cultural diversity, intercultural dialogue and social cohesion. The country profiles report on current challenges to policy concerning: the role of different partners in a changing system of governance for culture; programmes that support creativity; measurements of participation in cultural life; and economic, legal and educational dimensions of cultural policies. New data and indicators are constantly introduced to regularly monitor policy developments and trends in Europe.

The Compendium has become a working tool consulted on a daily basis by authorities, institutions and individuals involved in cultural policy making and research not only in Europe but world-wide.

The Compendium online version continues to be used as a capacity building tool at a number of universities around Europe and features on several university reading or resources lists for students of cultural policy, management and cultural economics around the world. In this context, the Compendium has become an important training tool for current and future cultural policy makers and administrators.

The Compendium is a long term project which aims to include all 48 member states co-operating within the context of the European Cultural Convention. The project currently involves experts from 40 countries.

Due to the longevity of the project and the annual updating of information, one of the main goals has been to further develop specific monitoring functions to track changes in cultural policies and trends in Europe. To date, several monitoring tables have been produced which: report on changes in the share of state expenditure for culture; provide a longitudinal perspective on changing policy priorities; demonstrate the process of developing and implementing legislation on e.g. social and fiscal measures for self-employed artists; illustrate the result of policy measures such as the fixed book price on the cost of cultural goods and services.

More recently, the aim of the project has been to develop tools to begin monitoring the implementation of key inter-governmental policy instruments such as the 1992 Council of Europe Charter for Regional or Minority Languages and the 2005 UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions.

Both content indicators and technical tools are being developed to enhance the monitoring capacities of the Compendium for the longer term future.

Community building: through ICT, the project could build a decentralised community of practice of authors in 40 European countries; a streamlined management approach which is both time and cost effective.

Information management: this online information platform provides us with a tool to visualise over 3,000 pages of information in a friendly manner which does not over burden the user and provides entry points to specific or selected themes of cultural policy which is becoming more and more complex (the Compendium country profiles currently report on 80 different issues which are addressed in the national cultural policy frameworks in Europe)

Any organisation could in theory replicate the project. In order to be successful, it is deemed useful to develop a community of practice involving different types of actors as described above in order to ensure credibility of the information/data being presented which goes beyond official government information to include civil society initiatives, debates and needs which policy makers could in future address.

ICT plays a key role in this project. Several tools have been developed over the years to empower users by making information and data more transparent and accessible. These are:

Online cross-country-navigation tool to make your own comparisons on information on cultural policy and trends in Europe.

Individual print report function which enables users to choose information and data from different countries and to create their own customised report.

Comparative view of pre-selected themes. These tables are updated annually and can now provide trend analyses given the longevity of the project.

Monitoring tables on cultural policy news, developments and the implementation of inter-governmental conventions.

Original language versions for download.

Database of cases of good practice on intercultural dialogue.

Full text search engine for easy access.

Accessibility for users with disabilities.