The war in Ukraine and its consequences will continue to be on the cultural agenda of the Swedish Presidency of the Council of the EU (see EUROPE 13094/8). At the meeting of the Council’s Cultural Affairs Committee on Friday 20 January, the Presidency intends to launch a debate on support for the sector, which is suffering from rising energy costs.
Indeed, explains Stockholm in a document that EUROPE was able to obtain, an overwhelming majority of cultural institutions and professionals lament the increases, sometimes spectacular, in their bills. Introducing energy-efficiency measures in museums or cultural and historical heritage buildings presents challenges, not least because of heritage preservation requirements.
In view of this, and as part of the action ‘Stimulate the green transition of the cultural and creative sectors, with a specific focus on the energy crisis’ of the EU Work Plan for Culture 2023-2026, the Presidency invites Member States to share their best practices with a view to cataloguing them. For its part, it identifies three categories of measures.
The first consists of providing direct support to the cultural sector. Some Member States have included the latter in their “general support schemes”, allowing them to obtain compensation or support for “energy-saving work [rapid or long-term] on public buildings” in the same way as other sectors. Others have opted for targeted aid to offset the rising cost of energy, possibly conditional on investments. But “Recovery and Resilience Plans can play a part in this”, says Sweden.
The second category of measures consists of energy-efficiency targets in the public and cultural sector, with, for example, lower temperatures in public buildings or teleworking.
Finally, some governments have instead consulted with the sector and developed action plans to achieve energy savings in cultural institutions. Here, the Swedish Presidency stresses that “the dialogue with the sector could also be viewed in the wider context of the green transition” and be part of the ‘new European Bauhaus’ (see EUROPE 13101/19).
To view the document: https://aeur.eu/f/4zi (Original version in French by Hélène Seynaeve)