Eroticizing the European Union

Last Friday, the European Commission launched its own channel on YouTube to promote the Europe Union (EU) through a series of short clips. One particular clip (see below) has triggered a controversy because it shows sex scenes from several mainstream movies and concludes with the line “Let’s come together” as a rallying call in favor of European cinema.

Some conservative British deputies have accused the EU of promoting “soft porn” whereas a conservative Polish deputy denounced its “immoral methods.” European Commission spokesman Martin Selmayr responded with a defense of artistic freedom: “The European Union is not a bible belt, we believe in freedom of expression and artistic creativity.”

Personally, I don’t know what the big deal is. But rather than bringing Europeans closer together, it seems that the clip polarizes them and feeds latent cultural and political cleavages. In the end, I wonder whether such a clip would have had an effect on European moviegoers…