Disappointment as EU unveils lower-than-expected culture budget for 2021-2027

By Emmanuel Legrand

The European creative sector expressed its disappointment at the disclosure that the budget for the Creative Europe programme for 2021-2027 would only benefit from a 4% rise to €1.52 billion, compared to €1.46 billion for the period 2014-2020. The European Union only allocates 0.1% of its budget to culture and arts, and many in the industry have been advocating for a more ambitious cultural policy backed by a significant budget.

  Ursula Von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, made the announcement as as part of the €750 billion European recovery plan made necessary by the Covid-19 pandemic. The recovery package will be at the top of the agenda of the next European Council on June 18. An earlier proposal from the Commission suggested that Culture would receive a budget allocation of €1.85bn for 2021-2027.

  The European Parliament's Committee on Culture and Education (CULT) reacted to the revised proposal for the 2021-2027 budget for the Erasmus+, Creative Europe and European Solidarity Corps programmes, by stating that "while the Commission's proposed recovery plan has a lot going for it, the specific figures for the education, culture and youth programmes are deeply disappointing and simply not in line with the statement by the Commission President on the importance of future generations, along with education and culture."

  In a joint statement, CULT Committee Chair Sabine Verheyen (EPP, DE) (pictured, above), Erasmus+ Rapporteur Milan Zver (EPP, SL), Creative Europe Rapporteur Massimilano Smeriglio (S&D, IT) and European Solidarity Corps Rapporteur Michaela Šojdrová (EPP, CS) argued that the additional budget increases for Erasmus+ and for Creative Europe "is only more money compared to the unacceptable baseline of the February proposal by Council President Charles Michel. All figures are far below the Commission's original proposal for the 2021-2027 budget. Since when does the Commission call decreases increases?"

Need for direct support

  They conclude: "The Covid-19 pandemic has also ravaged the cultural and creative and media sectors across Europe, but the proposal – a decrease compared to the 2018 proposal – ignores this impact completely. Creative Europe is the only EU programme that provides direct support to these sectors. The European Parliament has called on the Commission time and time again to put in place an ambitious plan to help the sectors recover, but the Commission is missing this opportunity and sending a terrible message." 

   The Committee on Culture and Education said it would "continue to fight for a budget that shows the necessary ambition and can make a real difference to these sectors, not just now, but for the next seven years."

  Helen Smith, Executive Chair of independent music companies's trade body IMPALA, said the issue will be discussed at the organisation's board meeting on June 2. "It’s a mixed bag," commented Smith of the EU announcement. "It's good to see culture featured when talking about the big programmes which cultural and creative SMEs can benefit from, but we need to see how exactly the sector is being prioritised as we have heard from the Commission in the past weeks. Clarification and guarantees are needed."

Secure improvements

   What worries the indie sector is the lack of ambition for the Creative Europe programme, with what amounts to a cut from the original budget proposal. Said Smith: "Although it’s a step up from the compromise proposed by the council President a few weeks ago, it is a substantial decrease compared to the €1.85bn the Commission proposed for the same programme back in 2018, and a far cry from the European Parliament’s proposed €2.8bn. This seems inconsistent with the fact that culture is rightly mentioned as one of the sectors hardest hit by the crisis, with the commission predicting an 80% drop in the sector’s turnover in the second quarter of 2020."

  Smith said IMPALA "will be looking to the Parliament and member states to secure the improvements needed."

  The French Coalition for Cultural Diversity said that the EU's €750 billion budget package to support the sectors most affected by the crisis "remains, at this stage, almost silent on the support provided to the cultural and creative sector, without specific measures or commitments major financiers."

An ambitious commitment

  "Worse," it added, "the 2021-2027 budget proposal for the Europe Creative programme (€1.52bn), an essential tool in European cultural policy, is even down 7% compared to a previous proposal by the European Commission two years ago."

  The coalition urged the EU "to make culture a political priority resulting in ambitious and appropriate financial commitments," and asked President Emmanuel Macron "to act quickly and to encourage the emergence of a European recovery plan that would not leave on the side of the road neither creators nor the French and European cultural enterprises."