Book center being reborn, with broader remit
More than 10 years after the plug was pulled on the National Book Center of Greece (EKEVI) in 2013, a new agency representing the Greek book market and literary world is in the offing, with greater funding capabilities, including from private sources, and a broader remit, taking over responsibilities that have, until now, belonged to the Culture Ministry’s Literature Directorate.
According to the deputy minister for contemporary culture, Christos Dimas, the new agency responsible for forging government policy pertaining to books will be called the Hellenic Foundation for Literature and Culture (ELIVIP). It will essentially emerge from a radical overhaul of the Hellenic Foundation for Culture (HFC) – which has been responsible, among other duties in the past few years, for organizing the Thessaloniki International Book Fair – and will also keep on its staff.
“We are putting a lot of effort into this new agency and it will be ready within 2024,” says Dimas.
‘We are trying to get it up and running as soon as possible and to ensure that it has a lot of flexibility’
“We are trying to get it up and running as soon as possible and to ensure that it has a lot of flexibility in terms of funding potential, so it can start running the programs and policies needed to support books and literacy, publishers and booksellers, and translators and writers,” he adds.
Like EKEVI, ELIVIP will have a large board. Apart from the chairman and vice chairman, its 11 members will represent publishers, booksellers, writers and translators, the ministries of Culture, Education and Foreign Affairs, and also the National Library.
In terms of funding tools, the agency will continue to receive the HFC’s regular subsidies, but it will also be set up as a company so that it can tap resources from the Public Investments Program, from European and international funding programs, and also from private grants and donations. It will additionally be able to raise revenue by exploiting its real estate and other assets, such as by leasing space for businesses like a shop or a cafe and also for events, or by organizing or managing events itself.
It will also be responsible for making sure Greece is appropriately represented at book events abroad, while retaining the organization of the Thessaloniki Book Fair. It will maintain and bolster existing HFC services like the GreekLit translation program and the Biblionet database, and be responsible for its entire archive, along with that of EKEVI.
How much leeway, however, will it have to influence policy on issues like value-added tax, which the sector is demanding be scrapped on books? Dimas says that ELIVIP will be able to draft policy on matters under its direct jurisdiction and to advise on issues that fall under that of other ministries, such as the Ministry of Economy and Finance in this particular case.
The draft bill outlining the parameters of the new agency is expected to be presented to the cabinet at one of its next sessions. In the meantime, the Culture Ministry is planning a series of meetings with publishers’ representatives next week to hear their concerns, proposals and demands.
