Belgium's candidacy for the Committee of the 2005 UNESCO Convention

The Wallonia-Brussels Federation has officially put forward Belgium's candidacy to join the Committee of the 2005 Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions for the 2025-2029 term. The election will take place during the next Conference of Parties in June 2025.

Among the twenty-four representatives sitting on the Intergovernmental Committee, four seats are allocated to countries from Western Europe and North America (currently France and Norway, Portugal and Canada). In 2025, two seats will again be vacant, and the General Delegation of Wallonia-Brussels in Paris is working to ensure that Belgium obtains one of these seats.

Minister-President Pierre-Yves Jeholet has already given his approval for this candidacy, notably because obtaining this seat would be a fine recognition for the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, which has been actively working on these issues since 2005, as the international community prepares to celebrate the 20th anniversary of this pioneering Convention.

Beyond this aspect, the 2005 Convention can serve as a point of support to defend important and priority issues for the future, both at the level of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation and the Walloon Region, such as, for example:

• The digital discoverability of cultural content, whether French-speaking or multilingual, as well as the impact of AI on this content;


• Support for cultural and creative industries around the world;


• The inclusion of Culture in the next sustainable development goals.