Uphold culture in the EU budget

A call for a central place for culture in the EU long-term recovery budget

Despite its historic relevance, the revised Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF)  proposal presented by the European Commission on 27 May is unambitious for culture. Member States now have the opportunity to show that a forward-looking strategy for the Europe of tomorrow does not leave culture and its ecosystem behind. 

Ahead of the European Council meeting on 19 June, Culture Action Europe and the members of the European Secretariat of German Culture NGOs call on the EU Member States to:

  1. Double the budget of Creative Europe to 2,6 billion euros, as the core programme for reinforcing European cultural cooperation.
  2. Make sure that the additional funds stemming from the Next Generation EU initiative, such as REACT-EU, reach cultural operators.

There will be no real recovery for Europe if culture is left behind.

Read the whole statement here and join with your signature.

Joint Policy Paper “Beyond the Urban”

Culture Action Europe (CAE), the European Network of Cultural Centres (ENCC), IETM – International network for contemporary performing arts, and Trans Europe Halles (TEH) have published a joint policy paper on the significance of culture and the arts in non-urban and peripheral areas of Europe. Based on many years of experience, the paper identifies challenges for the many existing and potential projects in those areas, and offer policy solutions to support them.

“Beyond Urban – Contemporary arts and culture in non-urban areas as keys to a sustainable and cohesive Europe”

COVID19: Appeal of European Culture NGOs to Governments

Cultural NGOs in Europe are taking their civic responsibility to mitigate the spread of COVID19 by  suspending events and travels. Whether employed or freelance, workers in the cultural sector, who are often in an already precarious situation, are now facing a sudden and dramatic loss of income.

Supporting an appeal by PEARLE* and others they urge all governments to adopt emergency measures that may adequately support the sustainability of the cultural sector.

EU 2021-2027: call for an adequate budget for culture in funding programmes

In the run-up to the special meeting of the European Council on February 20, 2020 and on the occasion of the #ActforCulture Action Day on February 17, 2020, eight cultural organizations in Germany, coordinated by the European Music Council, made an appeal to Minister of Culture Grütters, Federal Minister of Finance Scholz and Minister of State Roth from the German Federal Foreign Office. The ITI and the IGBK as members of the European Secretariat of German Culture NGOs also signed the call. Continue reading “EU 2021-2027: call for an adequate budget for culture in funding programmes”

“Culture Crops” Report published on CAE-Website

Culture Action Europe has published an extensive report on its 2019 Beyond the Obvious conference “Culture Crops: cultural practices in non-urban territories”, that took place in Konstanz/ Kreuzlingen end of October 2019. Read the full report of the conference on the Culture Action Europe Website here.

The purpose of the Culture Crops conference was to go “Beyond the Obvious”, developing a more comprehensive approach towards culture and cultural and artistic practices in peripheral and non-urban areas. Practically, this included walking the territories, visiting local initiatives and engaging in dialogue with cultural actors from other projects, but with similar challenges from across Europe.

Access to Financial Support for European Non-profit Cultural Organizations at Risk

 Culture Action Europe calls for securing a sustainable future for the European non-profit cultural sector. The statement from November 15 says, that the new application of financial assessment rules “actively prevents organisations in the cultural and creative sectors from accessing EU funding – particularly in specific EU countries where national regulations do not permit non-profit organisations to keep the reserves needed to be rated financially ‘strong’ by the EU – endangering a sizable percentage of cooperation projects and European networks.”

Following a 2018 introduced new matrix for the financial capacity of cultural organisations, 27 organisations selected for small and large Creative Europe cooperation projects starting in 2019 were assessed as “financially weak” and informed that they would not receive an advance payment for their projects unless they could produce a bank or third-party guarantee.

The European cultural sector is primarily made up of non-profit micro-organisations and is a powerful contributor to each priority of the EU Strategic Agenda 2019-2024. For all future programmes in the fields of culture, education, innovation, youth and sport CAE demands the implementation of a clause according to Regulation no 1288/2013 establishing Erasmus+, Article 19.3: “In addition to public bodies and higher education institutions, organisations in the fields of education, training, youth and sport that have received over 50% of their annual revenue from public sources over the last two years shall be considered as having the necessary financial, professional and administrative capacity to carry out activities under the Programme.”

The matrix for the assessment of the financial capacity of applicants must be reviewed to make sure that programmes are accessible to the full diversity of cultural operators in Europe, which are  overwhelmingly represented by micro-entities.

Read the full statement