At the European Parliament on Monday, 18 May, French Socialist Emma Rafowicz and Swedish environmentalist Alice Kuhnke unveiled their draft report on the AgoraEU programme in the European Union’s next multiannual financial framework (MFF).
For the 2028–2034 period, AgoraEU is expected to bring together financial support from the European budget allocated to culture, the media, and the defence of EU values for a total budget of 8.6 billion euros in accordance with the European Commission’s initial proposal (see EUROPE 13682/1).
The European Parliament had already backed increasing this amount around 25% (bringing it to 10.72 billion current euros) in its position on the overall architecture of the next MFF, which was adopted in April (see EUROPE 13849/14). The copy published on Monday – prepared by two rapporteurs from the two parliamentary committees (CULT and LIBE) jointly responsible for the issue – specifically focuses on the internal distribution of the various forms of aid and on the functioning of AgoraEU.
Overall, the draft report by Emma Rafowicz (S&D, French) and Alice Kuhnke (Greens/EFA, Swedish) counts on more precise earmarking than that proposed by the European Commission in order to bring the sectors “predictability”. Thus, 46.4% of the total sum would go to culture, with at least 55% of this amount for audiovisual and video games and 15% for music.
The text moreover provides that these grants be made conditional on “ethical [...] use” of artificial intelligence in creations, which should thus be “based on a substantial and identifiable human [...] contribution”.
Most of the remainder (41.9%) of the programme would notably be used to help civil society organisations that defend fundamental rights, equality, and the rule of law and even those that promote civic participation.
The remaining budget (11.7%) would go to journalism and information.
The draft is expected to be discussed in the parliamentary committees – where amendments may be submitted between now and 11 June – on 3 and 4 June so as to adopt the institution’s common position during the plenary session planned for the end of October.
On 12 May, the Council of the EU had, for its part, adopted a partial position on AgoraEU, without agreeing, at this stage, on the budget amounts to be set (see EUROPE 13867/19).
See the draft report: https://aeur.eu/f/lys (Original version in French by Clément Solal)