With reference to Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions on a European agenda for culture in a globalising world (COM(2007) 242 final). The Committee of Rregions published it's official opinion in the OJ of the European Union on the 26th Feburary 2008 and it was made clear that it explicitly welcomes the European Commission's submission on a European agenda for culture in a globalising world. The commitee agreed that The document rightly sets out the key role of culture in the integration process and noted the need for appropriate tools to promote to the full Europe's cultural richness and diversity and thus achieve the ‘strategic objectives of prosperity, solidarity and security’ both inside and outside the EU. Amoungst various positives the committee welcomed the fact that the Commission highlights the key role of culture and the creative economy in generating growth and creating jobs. Culture is a European growth industry.

Background
With regard to the main objectives of the communication, the CoR highlighted the direction of the objectives set out in the communication and endorses these objectives, prioritised as follows:

• promotion of cultural diversity and intercultural dialogue;
• promotion of culture as a vital element in international relations;
• promotion of culture as a driving force for the creative industry (Lisbon strategy);

The CoR is critical of the continued inadequacy of the resources made available by the EU and Member States to promote the most attractive EU cultural project — the European Capital of Culture scheme — to which it would appear to attach no strategic importance. This scheme is the most popular of all the European cultural projects, and is quickly gaining importance in the cultural development of cities and regions, as witnessed by the increasing number of national competitions to secure the title (eight UK contenders for the 2008 award; eighteen German and eleven Hungarian contenders for 2010; eight Finnish contenders for 2011; and seven contenders already in the running for the Spanish title in 2016).

Conclusions and advice
For the furture the Commission should pay particular attention to:
the strong and effective cooperation between the 2007 to 2011 European Capitals of Culture.
the cooperation under way between the joint 2010 Capitals of Culture — the Ruhr, Pécs and Istanbul — covering not only the innovative potential of sustainable, culture-based urban development and but also the particular opportunities thereby afforded to engage in dialogue with Islam.
the 2010 Cultural Cities Network

More information
for details of the communication see the reference document Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions on a European agenda for culture in a globalising world COM(2007) 242 final.