In his opening article, Fisher presents the developments in national policies and instruments for cultural co-operation during the last decade, looking in particular at the role of national cultural institutes. Klaic stresses the importance for the European Union to engage in multilateral cultural co-operation and proposes Houses of European cultures. In his article on the slow progress of a common EU cultural policy, Barzanti highlights the need to go beyond a sectoral approach to culture.

Also of interest is the documentary section on the role of foundations in European cultural co-operation, drawing on the results of a study of the Fitzcarraldo Foundation in 2003, available in the Cultural Policies Collection.

As the editor points out in her introduction, these developments towards a European, transnational dimension in cultural co-operation eventually allow culture to move out of the ambit of national hegemony and to become an object of exchange and communication.