Europe's creative sector continues to push for a bigger EU culture budget

By Emmanuel Legrand

The European creative sector is applying pressure to the European Commission to ensure that the European Union will benefit from a substantial budget to support culture and the arts to help the cultural and creative industries (CCIs) weather the impact of the coronavirus.

  A group of Nobel Prize winners, leading European Union officials, creators and executives from CCIs have unveiled a manifesto, released in multiple European countries insisting the culture should be at the heart of Europe’s economic recovery in the wake of Covid-19. The signatories wrote that they want culture to be part of the agenda of rebuilding Europe post-Covid.

 "Despite its growing importance, culture has not been sufficiently considered as an ecosystem; it remains perceived from a collateral angle," reads the manifesto. It added: "In this movement, the purple economy proposes a change of scale and perception, favouring a systemic approach where the diverse activities and cultural factors (education, information, communication and all goods with a strong imaginary and sensitive component) are no longer considered in isolation. At the cost of this transformation, the economy, imbued with the full potential of culture, will fully express its human character. This evolution will pave the way for global prosperity that’s more respectful of the natural environment and more equally distributed. What was once an opportunity must now become the present of sustainable development.”

Unambitious budget

  Signatories include chefs such as Ferran Adrià, Massimiliano Alajmo, or Elena Arzak; architects such as Rafael Aranda (Pritzker Prize 2017), Renzo Piano (1998 Pritzker Prize) and Shigeru Ban (Pritzker Prize 2014); economist Christopher Pissarides (2010 Nobel Prize in Economics); David Sassoli, President of the European Parliament; Jean-Noël Tronc, CEO of France's rights society SACEM, among others.

  Meanwhile, advocacy group Culture Action Europe has called for a central place for culture in the EU long-term recovery budget, noting with disappointment that the revised Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) proposal presented by the European Commission on 27 May was "unambitious for culture." The organisation has launched an online petition, which has been endorsed so far by over 1,600 signatories, calling for, ahead of the European Council meeting on 19 June, for EU Member States to double the budget of Creative Europe programme to €2.6 billion. Creative Europe is described as "the core programme for reinforcing European cultural cooperation."

Urgency due to the Covid crisis

  "Doubling Creative Europe’s budget, as we have been asking for years together with the European Parliament, is more urgent than ever," said Culture Action Europe. For the period 2021-2027, the Commission has earmarked €1.52bn for the Creative Europe programme in its May 27 budget proposal, less than the €1,64bn announced in May 2018.

  "As the new ambitious financial envelope to finance Europe’s recovery accounts for 1,85 trillion euros, Creative Europe represents only 0,08% of the whole package," noted Culture Action Europe. "This is a rather unambitious and short-sighted move for a strategy that expressly targets the next generation and the strengthening of more resilient and sustainable societies. Furthermore, it ignores the catastrophic impact that the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdowns have had on cultural and creative sectors."