The EU Council does not yet have a common position on the Creative Europe programme for the period 2021-2027. The European Ministers of Culture, meeting in Brussels on Tuesday 27 November, therefore confined themselves - as is customary - to taking note of a progress report prepared by the Austrian Presidency of the Council.
More surprisingly, this progress report was not public. This is a paradox, given that the afternoon's debate has consistently highlighted the need for an informed and quality press (see other news).
Our article is therefore based solely on the statements of the Commissioner for Education, the Hungarian Tibor Navracsics. According to him, three points are problematic in the negotiations: the relevance of the label of excellence, the participation of third countries and the eligible entities.
The Commissioner thus tried to convince delegations on these three points. He defended the added value of the "high quality label", granted to projects submitted to Creative Europe that are considered worthy of funding, but are not funded because of budgetary constraints. "This label must open up opportunities for funding from the Structural Funds and European investment for cultural projects. The possibility of having combined funding reflects this Commission's ambition to act in a transversal way. There is no obligation to use other funding instruments", the Commissioner explained.
Commissioner Navracsics also stressed the importance of opening the programme to third countries. "I would remind you that not so long ago, you welcomed the Communication on Cultural External Relations, which highlighted the need to better anchor neighbourhood countries in the Union's cultural sector. This requires exemptions from the Audiovisual Media Services Directive in duly justified and specific cases. ”
During the round table, France and Spain both insisted on making third country participation conditional on compliance with the provisions of the Audiovisual Media Services Directive.
Finally, he regretted that some Member States were reluctant to grant the European Film Academy and the European Orchestra the status of eligible entities under the programme. This message was also defended during the debate by Spain, Germany and Ireland. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)