More than 70 pan-European cultural associations, representing over 20,000 organisations, have called on the European Union to strengthen the Creative Europe programme in the post-2027 Multiannual Financial Framework, in a letter dated Monday 30 June addressed to the European Commission, the Parliament and the Council.
These organisations are calling on the EU to double the budget for Creative Europe and to devote 2% of the total MFF to the overall budget for culture. They also want to ensure that Creative Europe will remain a stand-alone programme in the next MFF. A draft reorganisation of the architecture of the EU’s long-term budget had suggested, in February 2025, that this would be the case (see EUROPE 13598/5).
The cultural sector associations base their arguments on the results of a Eurobarometer survey carried out in February/March 2025, which show that “culture is the strongest force binding EU citizens together” and on the “leading role” that the EU has played “for decades” in cross-border cultural cooperation.
According to the signatories, culture is a “strategic investment in Europe’s future” at a time of “geopolitical instability, (...) democratic backsliding, economic pressures”.
See the letter: https://aeur.eu/f/hnh (Original version in French by Florent Servia)