ABSTRACT
This chapter provides work towards a better understanding of the ways in which the European Union (EU) addresses culture and cultural diversity in its external relations, particularly its external economic relations. The provisions of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Convention encouraging increased international cooperation in the field of culture have induced the EU to develop novel approaches concerning the place and treatment of culture in its external economic relations. The integration of cultural cooperation protocols in the EU-Cariforum Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), the EU-Korea Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and the EU- Central America (CA) Association Agreement marks a qualitative shift in the interaction of trade and economic objectives with cultural diversity concerns. The three agreements have proven sufficiently flexible to accommodate, through the protocols, provisions that safeguard the ability of the EU and its Member States to adopt and maintain measures that promote cultural interaction and exchange.
