For the first time, the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union and the European Commission adopted, on Thursday 18 June, a joint political declaration devoted to culture, entitled ‘Europe for Culture - Culture for Europe’. Signed on the sidelines of the European Council, this declaration sets out 12 principles intended to serve as indicators for European cultural policies and makes culture a political priority.
Indeed, ‘Europe for Culture’ should foster the conditions enabling everyone to create, access culture and participate in it, while protecting artists and professionals in the sector. Moreover, ‘Culture for Europe’ recognises the role of culture in strengthening democracy, community cohesion, regional development and Europe’s influence in the world.
In the plenary session in Strasbourg, the European Commissioner for Culture, Glenn Micallef, welcomed the fact that the three institutions “elevate culture” and “make culture a political priority in the European Union”.
As he argued, culture defends democracy, combats disinformation and promotes respect, tolerance and peace.
The Commissioner also presented culture as a vector of cohesion and freedom, in that it defends democracy and counters attempts to erase memories, identities and also the sense of belonging.
The text recognises culture both as a public good and as an economic sector.
According to the Statistical Office of the European Union (Eurostat), 7.9 million people worked in the cultural sector in the European Union in 2024, accounting for 3.8% of total employment. Europe’s 2.1 million cultural enterprises generated around €202 billion in added value and €524 billion in turnover in 2023. In 2024, European exports of cultural goods to third countries reached €31.5 billion.
The declaration is the first result of the ‘Culture Compass for Europe’, presented by the European Commission last November (see EUROPE 13750/6). The next initiatives will be a dialogue with cultural stakeholders in the third quarter of 2026, a network of youth cultural ambassadors in 2026, a strategy on artificial intelligence for the cultural and creative sectors in the first quarter of 2027, a European charter for artists in the second quarter of 2027, a report on the state of culture and a European cultural data centre in the third quarter of 2027.
In the chamber, several MEPs welcomed this initiative. Hannes Heide (S&D, Austrian), who described the declaration as “historic”, said that it placed culture at the centre of European policy. Likewise, for the chair of the European Parliament’s Committee on Culture, Nela Riehl (Greens/EFA, German), this day is “truly historic for European cultural policy”.
See the joint declaration: https://aeur.eu/f/mfm (Original version in French by Nithya Paquiry)