- 4 ore fa
Il commissario UE boccia i tentativi di rilanciare la Super League di calcio
In un’ampia intervista esclusiva a Euronews, il commissario europeo per lo Sport e la cultura, Glenn Micallef, difende le infrastrutture calcistiche europee, presenta il primo quadro strategico dell’UE sulla cultura e sollecita il miglioramento delle condizioni di lavoro degli artisti.
ALTRE INFORMAZIONI : http://it.euronews.com/2025/11/18/il-commissario-ue-boccia-i-tentativi-di-rilanciare-la-super-league-di-calcio
Abbonati, euronews è disponibile in 12 lingue.
In un’ampia intervista esclusiva a Euronews, il commissario europeo per lo Sport e la cultura, Glenn Micallef, difende le infrastrutture calcistiche europee, presenta il primo quadro strategico dell’UE sulla cultura e sollecita il miglioramento delle condizioni di lavoro degli artisti.
ALTRE INFORMAZIONI : http://it.euronews.com/2025/11/18/il-commissario-ue-boccia-i-tentativi-di-rilanciare-la-super-league-di-calcio
Abbonati, euronews è disponibile in 12 lingue.
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00:00Hello and welcome to the Europe Conversation, I'm Stefan Grobe.
00:12My guest today is Glenn Mikalif, EU Commissioner for Intergenerational Fairness, Culture, Youth and Sport.
00:20Appropriately so, I should say, because at age 36 he's one of the youngest commissioners ever.
00:26Commissioner, thank you so much for coming on the program today.
00:29Thank you, Stefan, and thank you for this opportunity to speak about the areas of my portfolio,
00:34which are areas that are so dear to European citizens.
00:37And I'm all the more excited that you are joining me today,
00:41because you're just rushing out of a meeting with your fellow commissioners,
00:45where you presented and launched a new program, the Culture Compass for Europe.
00:52Now, tell us all about it. What is it and why do we need it?
00:55So, Stefan, for me this is a very exciting day.
00:57We have just adopted in college the Culture Compass for Europe.
01:02It's a strategy which is both ambitious, strategic and impactful.
01:08And our objective here is for this to be a game changer for the cultural sector.
01:13It's a strategy that is a long-term vision of what we want to achieve in the cultural sector,
01:22essentially celebrating our diversity, our rich diversity in the European Union.
01:27And we say that Europe is a continent that embraces its unity in diversity.
01:33And diversity starts with culture.
01:36We have a diversity of languages in the European Union, 24 official languages,
01:42and 60 regional and minority languages.
01:44We have a rich heritage, both tangible and intangible heritage.
01:50Europe is home to the largest number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
01:55And this is a sector that contributes significantly to our economy.
01:59So, to put this in perspective, this is a sector that contributes 200 billion euro annually in value added to our economies.
02:09It employs 8 million people.
02:12And 40% of our tourism is cultural tourism.
02:16And so, these are significant contributions to our societies, to our democracy, but also to our competitiveness.
02:24That you mentioned democracy.
02:26Can culture be a counterforce to extremism, defending democracy?
02:33Look, culture, when artists are free to express themselves,
02:38when they are free to artistically express their voices,
02:44then democracy has a voice.
02:46So, what we want to do is we want to strengthen artistic freedom.
02:51We want to give the opportunity for people to be able to access more easily our culture and our heritage in Europe.
02:59Because this is one of the most effective shields that we have to division and extremism.
03:06And this is why I say continuously that if we invest in culture, it pays back twice.
03:12It pays today and tomorrow, but it also helps us promote the values that the union stands for,
03:18which is dialogue, communication, encouraging people to think critically and to empathize.
03:26And this is, these are a translation of our values into action through culture.
03:31And how can art be shielded from political influence?
03:36You mentioned freedom of expression already.
03:39Because as it happened, a concert with an Israeli conductor was cancelled because of the Gaza crisis some time ago.
03:48What's your take?
03:49Where are you coming down on this?
03:50Stefan, freedom of artistic expression is the essential precondition for the enjoyment of culture.
03:57So, our ambition here is to encourage and promote and protect and preserve our cultural diversity.
04:08We want to ensure that we have a strong political commitment.
04:12This is why we, in our cultural compass, one of the first flagship actions that we propose is a reaffirmation of the values that we hold so dear.
04:22At political level, this is why we're proposing a joint declaration between the parliament, the council and the commission,
04:30making a strong political statement of what values we want to promote.
04:36You once said, I want culture to pay the rent, calling for real change in how Europe supports its creative forces, its artists.
04:46What prompted that heartfelt remark?
04:49I didn't say it once.
04:50I said it more than once and I will continue to say it.
04:53Because people create culture.
04:55And there is no art, there is no culture without artists and creative professionals.
04:59And the culture compass makes this very clear.
05:01Culture revolves through people, through artists and to creators.
05:06And they are the ones who bring the cultural sector to life.
05:09So, they deserve dignity.
05:12The reality is here that in Europe we have 8 million people working in this sector.
05:17which is roughly 4% of our working population.
05:22To put things into perspective, this is almost the amount of people that we have working in the agricultural sector.
05:30Yet this is a sector that faces many challenges.
05:32So, you have atypical working hours, seasonality impacting the sector, poor working conditions, and lack of protection and support.
05:41Half of the people that are working in this sector say that they face poor working conditions.
05:48And close to 70% say that they have to work more than one job to be able to make ends meet.
05:55And this means that if we continue to allow this to happen, it will be very hard for the cultural sector to attract and to retain talent.
06:04So, if we want to unlock the potential that culture can contribute to our society, but also to our economies, this must change.
06:13And culture must pay the rent.
06:15And what exactly is the remedy?
06:17I mean, you're dealing with national governments who are in charge of culture.
06:21I'm getting to this.
06:22So, I've been, for the last 10 months, speaking to stakeholders in the sector, artists, writers, publishers, and many of them, they long to dedicate themselves to their artistic work.
06:38But they can't because they don't afford it.
06:40And they feel, and this is the takeaway that I get from the consultations that I have, that we expect them to work for free, voluntarily, and without compensation.
06:54So, we're proposing a new charter on the rights of the artists, on the status of the European artists.
07:01We want to kickstart that discussion immediately in December when we have the high-level roundtable on artists' working conditions.
07:09And this is a forum where we will also present best practices that have worked in member states to improve working conditions.
07:18You've been at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year.
07:23Is the European film industry strong enough to face the current challenges?
07:28And I name a few. Hollywood, digital transformation, fragmented production, and distribution.
07:34So, can I speak a little bit about my views on the digital transition?
07:41Because the digital transition and the new technologies, particularly artificial intelligence, are ones where we have to have a future outlook to.
07:52So, we have to embrace these technologies.
07:57In the cultural sector, these are technologies that are having a profound, they're leaving a profound impact.
08:04And these sectors and these industries, including the film industries, have been increasingly using these technologies.
08:11They are a huge opportunity for the sector, but only if the conditions are right.
08:16And our focus here should be for these sectors to embrace these technologies, for these technologies to contribute to more innovation and to the sectors becoming more competitive.
08:33And more importantly, that these technologies reinforce and enable human creativity.
08:39And this is why we also propose in the Culture Compass an AI strategy for the cultural and creative sectors to help transform the challenges that these sectors face into opportunities.
08:52And out there, there are genuine concerns in some of these sectors.
08:57As I said, I've been having consultations for the last 10 months.
09:00I've spoken to representatives, for example, of the books and publishing sector.
09:04And they are alarmed at the astonishing pace at which some books, some titles are being published.
09:13So, some authors publishing almost one title a day, which is shocking.
09:19And this is why we're proposing to build on the AI action plan, the initiatives by EVP Verkunen,
09:27We're going to complement them with a dedicated strategy for AI in the cultural and creative sector industries where we propose three pillars for action.
09:38The first is to foster innovation in these sectors by promoting collaboration between artists and creators and the digital sector,
09:50promoting the ethical use of artificial intelligence,
09:53and finally identifying the support and the adaptations needed in the sector to be able to protect both content and the creators.
10:05And this is, to me, the fundamental point that rights holders, those who come up with the content, remain in control of their work.
10:15Now, I asked you about the film industry.
10:17Now, you're ending up about books.
10:21I want you to answer a film question, if I may.
10:24What are your favorite movies?
10:26Name one or two or three.
10:28My favorite ever would be Gladiator.
10:32It's a movie that was shot in Malta, where I come from.
10:37And it was released, if I'm not mistaken, in the year 2000.
10:43So I remember watching it in the cinema.
10:47You mentioned artificial intelligence.
10:50Do you see this, or let me ask it differently, how can AI be an inspiration for the arts?
10:59Well, the movie sector is a showcase of how artificial intelligence has been used, not now.
11:08It has been used for at least a decade.
11:10So I've been, in one of my consultations, leading up to the adoption of the Culture Compass,
11:16I've been to an investment, financed also, using European funding, of a film academy in Spain.
11:24This was an academy that was encouraging young students to enter the film industry,
11:34contributing to the industry, but also teaching them new skills that are needed to make productions
11:42even better than they are today.
11:44And this is what I mean when I say we have to embrace these technologies, use them to our advantages,
11:49and, at the same time, work with the creators and the content, those who come up with the content,
11:56to get something that we don't get from any machine, which is human imagination.
12:01That will never be replaced.
12:03I want to pivot to youth part of your portfolio as well.
12:09And as we were speaking about artificial intelligence,
12:11There is the concern that especially young people are suffering from the fact that many entry-level jobs
12:20in the service sector, white-call jobs, are being replaced by artificial intelligence.
12:26And a lot of people are, young people are having problems getting into the job market.
12:33Where do you come down on this?
12:35Is this a real concern?
12:36Look, these are technologies that will change the labour market.
12:42They will have structural changes on the labour market.
12:46But it makes it all the more important that we invest in initiatives
12:49that promote upskilling, reskilling, and quality jobs.
12:54That is what this commission has been very busy doing since the initial days of the mandate.
13:00Initiatives like the Union of Skills by EVP Menzato, the AI Action Plan by EVP Verkunen,
13:08all place a huge emphasis on the need for investments in this area to equip our workforces,
13:16youth and beyond, with the right tools that we need to make the best use of these technologies.
13:22Another problem that youngsters are facing is mental problems.
13:30And according to the World Health Organization,
13:32there are roughly 20% of young people in the EU who suffer from mental problems.
13:39I'm sure you are aware of that problem.
13:42What can we do?
13:43What can the commission do?
13:44What can the people in the council do to find a solution to this?
13:49Our figures are showing an even more alarming situation.
13:53This is no longer a priority.
13:55This is an emergency now.
13:57We have one in two young people, so half of our younger generation,
14:02that reports that they have struggled with some kind of mental health issue,
14:08be it depression, anxiety, or some other form of disorders.
14:13This is, to my, the way I see it, linked to quality of life.
14:22And here, again, I see a huge role for the cultural sector.
14:27To me, improving cultural offers for youth, but also more broadly for our populations,
14:34can be a healthy alternative, for example, to excessive screen time.
14:40Excessive screen time, which, in my opinion, is directly linked to the problems that we see with mental well-being,
14:49not to mention the negative psychological, physical, and emotional effects it has on younger generations.
14:58But improving cultural offers can actually make a huge difference.
15:01We see this also through our work promoting the intersection and the collaboration between culture and well-being.
15:10And this is one of the areas where we emphasize and put a lot of effort in the culture compass.
15:16So we want to improve the access to culture for youth, more specifically.
15:21What about the access to sports?
15:25There's the mental health, there's also the physical health.
15:28And the problem of obesity is becoming bigger and bigger.
15:32How do you get, especially young people, to be more active?
15:37We have an epidemic of inactivity nowadays.
15:40We have, in our populations, almost half of our citizens that are not active physically.
15:47Not even an hour a week.
15:50And this is linked to a huge problem that we have in terms of non-communicable diseases.
15:58So cardiovascular issues, diabetes, and health expenditures that we see soaring.
16:08But beyond the expenditures, it's leaving an impact on the well-being of our population.
16:15So sport could be a free medicine, a free remedy to these challenges that we face.
16:22Our ideas, our thinking there is to promote sports even further among population.
16:28We've just come out of the European Week of Sport, where we have, across the European Union,
16:35towards the end of September, a celebration of sport at grassroots level, but also at higher level,
16:42encouraging people to be physically active.
16:45It's not about competition.
16:47It's not about, you know, going to the Olympics.
16:51It's about waking up in the morning, putting on your running shoes, going for a walk, and being active.
16:58That makes you physically stronger and healthier, but also mentally.
17:02I know you love football.
17:05Yes.
17:05You were a vice president of a club in Malta.
17:09Yes.
17:09You're no longer having that job, but you were.
17:15I want to know, how do you see attempts to revive the European Super League in Europe, independent from UEFA?
17:24I will tell you a very direct answer on this.
17:27Please.
17:28The Super League was, is, and will continue to be a mistake.
17:34This is not a good idea.
17:35This is not the way we innovate in sport.
17:39In Europe, we believe in open competition, in sport based on merit,
17:45and qualification to these European-level competitions should be based on sporting merit.
17:53And this way, we could also support our European domestic leagues to continue to be sustainable.
18:01Would that only cement the English dominance over European football, a Super League independent from UEFA?
18:10Look, it's no secret that European football, European sport, faces challenges from a sustainability point of view.
18:19There are various issues that are contributing to this, including heavy match calendars,
18:25including pressures on the financial side.
18:32And that just means that we have to bring all the stakeholders, work together to find common solutions.
18:38It will take a common effort.
18:39It will take stakeholders around, sitting around the same table, in an inclusive way, accepting everyone around the table.
18:47I've been shocked to see, over the last few days, discussions on athletes' welfare, for example,
18:54without the union representing the athletes being around the table.
18:58No, these are discussions that we need to have in an inclusive environment,
19:03with all stakeholders around the table, and working towards common solutions.
19:06And a question to the football fan, then, how do we stop the English dominance in football in Europe?
19:14It needs investment, investment and collaboration.
19:19And, of course, there are ways where we could innovate, like maybe exploring innovative formats for the way that our leagues are organized.
19:32But that doesn't mean that we take away sport, away from the communities.
19:38I think most of the clubs in Europe owe their successes to the local communities,
19:45and that is something that we have to preserve for sure.
19:49All right.
19:50Commissioner Glenn Mikhailov, thank you so much for coming on the show today.
19:53Thank you.
19:54Thank you.
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