In a letter to President Chirac on May 6th, the AER President Liese Prokop called on him and his government to maintain their “firm position in defending cultural diversity”.

In an answering letter to the Assembly of European Regions (AER), the President of the French Republic Jacques Chirac fully supports the AER position on the necessity to maintain a firm stance in the area of cultural diversity within the ongoing discussions on the Constitutional Treaty. President Chirac himself emphasised this French priority in a letter to President Giscard d’Estaing. He wrote, “the importance that France places on maintaining the current measures in the area of the common commercial policy requiring the agreement of the member states in order to conclude any international agreement involving the trade in cultural and audiovisual services, educational services as well as health and social services”.

Therefore, the French government and the AER support the position of maintaining the current Article 133.6 of the Nice Treaty in the future Constitutional Treaty rather than Article 24-part II that is presently under discussion.

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