In a joint letter to the relevant Commissioners, the EU's 27 Culture Ministers underline the importance of the Creative Europe programme and highlight the new challenges facing the audiovisual sector. A few days ago, the Polish EU Presidency announced its intention to launch discussions on the future budget for the cultural and creative sector.
The crucial role of the Creative Europe programme in promoting cultural diversity and the importance of the European Union continuing to support cooperation and content creation in the cultural and creative sectors is underlined in a joint letter co-signed by the 27 EU Culture Ministers.
“Without pre-empting EU budgetary negotiations we would like to stress that only with such targeted measures can we safeguard the sector’s long – term resilience, competitiveness and vitality of Europe’s cultural and creative ecosystem” the joint letter notes.
The letter comes just days after the Polish Presidency of the Council of the European Union announced its intention to launch a discussion on the future of the Creative Europe programme after 2027, the future budget and the direction of EU support for the cultural and creative sectors, for which Creative Europe is the main source of funding.
As published by the Bulgarian media Cross the 27 EU Culture Ministers addressed the letter to the Executive Vice-President for Tech Sovereignty Security and Democracy, Henna Virkkunen, to the Commissioner for Intergenerational Fairness, Youth, Culture and Sport, Glenn Micallef and to the Commissioner for Budget, Anti-fraud, Public Administration, Piotr Serafin.
In the joint letter, the 27 EU Culture Ministers point out that the Creative Europe is the only European programme specifically designed to support cooperation and content creation among cultural and creative organisations and professionals. It also provides tools for cross border cooperation, mobility of cultural professionals and circulation of high quality cultural content. “Creative Europe programme has been and continuous to be, essential instrument for protecting and promoting cultural diversity, cultural heritage and creativity and nurturing the audiovisual sector in Europe” is underlined in the letter.
Specifically for the audiovisual sector, the letter highlights the major challenges it faces due to digital transformation and technological innovations such as artificial intelligence, and calls for support that is visible, inclusive and sustainable, with creativity and cultural diversity at its core. “The need for such cooperation has never been more pressing, especially in the context of ongoing digital transformation and ever changing world” EU's 27 Culture Ministers stress.
According to the joint letter the audiovisual sector in Europe is artistically thriving largely due to cooperation, co-productions, talent exchange and networking. This carefully balanced ecosystem developed and sustained by the Creative Europe programme creates considerable value for various stakeholders and creative talents across and beyond Europe as well as economic benefits.
Concluding their joint letter the 27 EU Culture Ministers reafirm that “the cultural and creative sectors including the audiovisual industry, require effective and sector-tailored EU incentives”. These incentives according to the letter should ensure that EU strategies and funding priorities are flexible and responsive to the rapidly evolving needs of the sector as well as digital challenges and technological innovations.
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