Advocacy for culture is one of the core activities of ENCC. The coming weeks will be particularly crucial for determining what the future EU budget will look like and what importance will be given to the cultural sector.
Since 2018, together with other networks and cultural organizations we have been monitoring and trying to influence the developments of the next EU Multiannual Financial Framework, covering the years 2021-27, focusing especially on the part related to the Creative Europe programme, even if it represents only about 0,1% of the whole package.
The long and complicated process of negotiation, further complicated by the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic and its massive socio-economic impact, should be reaching an end soon, thus these weeks are particularly crucial for determining what the budget will look like and what importance will be give to the cultural sector.
We share the deep disappointment expressed in May by the European Parliament CULT Committee rapporteurs on the latest MFF proposal for Creative Europe. We also strongly support the statement by the same Committee in June asking to double the budget for Creative Europe, triple it for Erasmus Plus, and earmark 1.2 billion for the European Solidarity Corps.
We believe that doubling Creative Europe’s budget, as we and the European Parliament have been asking for years, is more urgent than ever, considering the COVID crisis and the role that culture has to play in building more resilient, sustainable, inclusive and fairer societies. We also ask for the entire cultural sector to benefit from the EU recovery plan’s various instruments, making sure that the additional funds stemming from the Next Generation EU initiative reach cultural operators.
Now, as Germany takes up the presidency of the European Union, attention is turning particularly towards that member state, ahead of the next meeting of the European Council, scheduled for 17-18 July.
What can you do right now?
Here is a list of statements we have signed and promoted since the beginning of the process:
June 2020: Investing in Europe’s Next Generation by Investing in Culture - open letter to Ministers of Culture, Ministers of Finance, MEPs and Commissioners signed by 94 cultural organisations throughout Europe
June 2020: Uphold Culture in the EU Budget - statement/petition by Culture Action Europe
April 2020 Now Europe needs culture and culture needs Europe, by 37 European and international cultural networks
March 2020 Effect of COVID-19 on Creative Europe and the European Cultural and Creative Sectors, joint letter to Commissioner Gabriel and Members of Directorate General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture (DG EAC):
November 2019 Investing in our culture is investing in our future - Open letter to EU leaders from 90 international organisations in Europe’s cultural and creative sectors
February 2018 1% for Culture Campaign by Culture Action Europe
January 2018 Statement on post-2020 Multiannual Financial Framework by the European Alliance for Culture and the Arts
And a few other statements that we stand by:
June 2020 Statement by Sabine VERHEYEN following the exchange of views at the Committee on Culture and Education on the revised MFF proposal, in the European Parliament in Brussels
May 2020 'Rethink deeply disappointing budget proposals' - CULT Committee reaction to new MFF proposal
April 2020 Rescue the Arts - Plea to National Governments - IETM
March 2020 Open Letter to the EU Commission and the Member States, demanding support for the Cultural and Creative Sectors affected by the COVID-19 crisis, by Niklas Nienass, MEP
