ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the impact on cultural diversity of one EU policy domain, albeit a very central one: the domain of the internal market. In assessing the impact of market integration, it follows the traditional distinction, in EU law, between negative integration and positive integration. The powers of the European Union in the field of culture are defined, by the European Treaties, in a way that places heavy emphasis on their subsidiary nature. Cultural diversity came to be seen as a value threatened by the impact of market integration, rather than as a value that underlies the free movement rights and is boosted by their effective application. Inside the EU, though, cultural diversity plays a more ambiguous role. On the one hand, it is treated with due respect in Court judgments and policy documents of the EU institutions, and the Union's budget supports projects that favour the mutual exchange of cultural creations between the Member States.
