It is once again time to defend culture within EU policy, and our all action is needed.
Creative Europe is a €1.46 billion European Union programme for the cultural and creative sectors for the years 2014-2020.
The general objectives of Creative Europe are:
The programme has set aside funding for 250,000 artists and cultural professionals, 2,000 cinemas, 800 films and 4,500 literary translations.
Creative Europe constitutes a mere 0.14% of the overall European budget and only one third (31%) is earmarked for culture. This is the importance we gave culture in Europe until now. We could do better, couldn´t we?
European Council President Charles Michel has called for a special summit on February 20 to discuss the 2021-2027 EU budget and so the future of culture in Europe. In a process that takes months of negotiation and several summits, Charles Michel and his team anticipate reaching a deal by the end of just the single summit. This decision could have drastic effects on Creative Europe funding.
In December of 2019 Charles Michel proposed a ‘negotiating box’ with a €1,087 billion overall budget, a general decrease from previous proposals. You can read more details on the negotiation process here.
What is certain is that this kind of cuts on Creative Europe would make the programme suffer a great damage, generating frustration and even close-downs of many organizations and projects.
We are citizens and organisations who believe that culture is the foundation of European unity. It binds us together and underpins our sense of belonging to the European community. We believe that culture plays a crucial role in upholding common European values, nourishing mutual understanding among the peoples of Europe and fostering diverse and inclusive societies.
We aspire to put culture at the heart of public debate and decision‐making. Culture and the arts are deeply embedded in society and affect a range of policy fields. Robust evidence exists on the positive impact of culture on health and well‐being, social cohesion and equality, education, promotion of democratic principles, external relations, alongside with growth and jobs, research and innovation.
National governments and EU policymakers are currently taking decisions on the post 2020 EU budget that will influence the next phase of support to culture. We call on the European Institutions and Member States to recognise the EU added value of cultural investment and translate it to sufficient support in the next EU budget.
A shared European future is only possible with substantial and sustainable funding for culture.
Reach out to your national Ministers of Culture, Finances and Foreign Affairs and convince them that Creative Europe should continue in 2021-2027 and support many more projects than it currently does.
Sign and share Culture Action Europe’s manifesto calling for the EU to allocate 1% of its budget to culture.
Finally, please convince others in your country to do the same, start campaigns to co-sign the letter.
Because supporting culture is supporting Europe!
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_Europe
https://cultureactioneurope.org/news/actforculture-action-day-towards-mff-negotiations/
