Policy update: July 2025
Towards a new European cultural strategy: the Culture Compass
Back in September 2024, Commissioner Glenn Micallef's mission letter mentioned the need for an overarching, coherent and comprehensive new strategic framework for culture, referred to as the new Culture Compass for Europe, that should provide long-term direction for the various dimensions of culture in EU policymaking and ensure that culture becomes more accessible to all.
Building on that commitment, the European Commission is now in the process of drafting this new road map, based on the political guidelines and priorities for the 2024-2029 legislative term, that will highlight culture and history as the foundation of the European way of life. The aim is to make it “easier for people – especially younger generations – to benefit from Europe's rich and diverse cultural heritage”.
The Culture Compass is meant to serve as a strategic framework to guide European cultural policy over the coming years. However, it is worth mentioning that it will not be a legislative instrument, thus not legally binding. Many aspects of it extend European competencies and will depend on both political will and sustained advocacy efforts on the part of civil society.
In preparation of this road map, the Commission held a consultation involving Member States, stakeholders and citizens. The initiative aimed to align culture-related policies and foster synergies, simplifying access for the cultural and creative sectors to the available resources. The process began on March 20th, 2025 with an in-person event with Commissioner Glenn Micallef, CULT Chair MEP Nela Riehl, and Polish minister of culture and national heritage Marta Cienkowska, as well as over 50 representatives from the European cultural and creative sector. Three round tables focused on the main guiding principles reflected in the future Culture Compass, the needs of the sector, and the potential of culture as a strategic force for Europe.
Then, from April 15th to May 30th, an open call for evidence invited contributions from the public, which were then Feed pubished on the Commission’s website - the same procedure was adopted for consultations on the Democracy Shield (March 31st - May 26th) and the Apply AI strategy (April 9th - June 4th).
In our feedback as ENCC, we underlined culture’s role as the guardian of democracy, and emphasised the importance of recognising culture’s stand-alone character, especially reflected in funding, flexibility in the outcome assessment, and structured dialogue.
On March 31st, 2025, the European Parliament held a plenary debate with Commissioner Micallef, providing MEPs an opportunity to express their views on the proposal. It was agreed that, by the end of October 2025, a joint declaration will be issued by the Commission, the Parliament and the Council, consolidating the shared political commitment on the matter across institutions.
At ENCC, we continue to engage on policy and advocacy work for the sector, notably by contributing to the Culture Action Europe consultations. Namely, we are preparing policy briefs on “Cultural Participation” and “Culture and Sustainability”, as one of the leading organisations for the dedicated working groups. Additionally, we contribute to the discussions on “Culture, Digital and AI” and “International Cultural Relations”. In September, these policy briefs will feed into a “Shadow Culture Compass”, which will provide the take of civil society on the matterm as well as in-depth information on context, actionable solutions, and relevant resources on the topic.
The next Multiannual Financial Framework
On July 16th, 2025, Commissioner Piotr Serafin and Commission President Ursula Von Der Leyen presented the proposal for the next Multiannual Financial Framework, which will cover the years 2028 - 2034. The overall budget will increase from 1,2 billion to 2 trillion Euros, and the plan foresees a more centralised sustem, with smaller funds being integrated into larger ones, and redundant ones being scrapped.
The main funding programme for the cultural sector will be named Agora EU, and will merge the Creative Europe and CERV programmes. Agora EU will consist of three strands: Culture (€1.8 billion), Media (€3.2 billion), and Democracy, Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values (€3.8 billion), resulting in a budget which will be raughly double than the one of the current Creative Europe.
Representatives from the European Parliament lamented the lack of transparency and dialogue in the process so far.
Next steps: After the summer break, the negotiations between Parliament, Council and Commission to amend the proposed regulation will start, and are set to last approximately two years.
What you can do: The proposed culture budget represents only the bare minimum needed to sustain the European cultural sector. It is important to actively engage to further strengthen and increase it as negotiations move forward. Act: Send a letter to your national finance minister about the importance of strengthening the Creative Europe budget in the MFF negotiations – you find instructions here.
The UNESCO IGC conference and Civil Society Forum
Each year, the Civil Society Forum organises and facilitates the coordinated participation of civil society actors in the Intergovernmental Committee of the 2005 Convention, both in Paris and online. This year, the 18th session of took place on February 11th – 13th, and we took part.
In the lead-up to MONDIACULT – the world’s largest cultural policy conference, which will take place in Barcelona from September 29th to October 1st – we contributed to the Digital Library by sharing key insights from our research on "Just Sustainability from the Heart of Communities." We will also organise a side event ahead of MONDIACULT.
#Haveyoursay: get engaged with our advocacy work
As you probably know, 2025 has marked the beginning of JuST, the new Creative Europe-funded project that will be the backdrop to most of our activities for the next four years. The JuST journey will include a series of new initiatives dedicated to advocacy and policy analysis for the socio-cultural sector, which we will carry out in close dialogue with you and the larger ENCC community. Each year, our work will explore a different topic, and 2025 is dedicated to the cultural participation of marginalised groups, with a special focus on youth. In case you've missed them, here are the opportunities brought to you by JuST over the course of the last six months:
Help shape our advocacy work: don't forget to add your comments to the draft of our annual policy brief here.
We want to give European resonance to your practices, learn from them, and integrate your lived experience into our work: share your contributions with us by filling the dedicated form.
For updates on the ongoing ENCC School of Advocacy, check the dedicated padlet here. And remember: you can join the School at any point in time.
Further highlights
The release of our new Podcast The EU-Backoffice, produced in collaboration with Reset! Network, is scheduled for the end of September – don’t miss it! More coming soon.
Check the latest Eurobarometer survey here.