09/05/2025 (Agence Europe) – According to a Eurobarometer survey (https://aeur.eu/f/gqv ) published by the European Commission on Thursday 8 May, no less than 87% of Europeans want culture and cultural exchanges to play an important role in the EU. 86% of respondents said that heritage should be central to European cultural issues, and 88% believe artistic freedom is important, seeing it as a pillar of democracy. However, only 51% consider artists’ pay to be fair and 73% fear the influence of artificial intelligence on employment and income in the arts. Finally, the public want the EU to play a stronger role in culture to improve accessibility, heritage protection and working conditions for artists. The results will be taken into account in drawing up the EU’s ‘Culture Compass’, the future European ‘strategic framework’, for which a call for contributions (https://aeur.eu/f/gqt ) is open until 13 May. (NP)