Creative Europe: Commission unveils plan to boost cultural and creative sectors

More information on Creative Europe

On 23 November the European Commission sent its proposal for Creative Europe to the European Council and European Parliament.

With a proposed budget of €1.8 billion for the period 2014-2020, Creative Europe would promote and safeguard cultural and linguistic diversity and be a much-needed boost for Europe's cultural and creative sectors, which are a major source of jobs and growth and greatly contribute to social inclusion.

The Commission's Creative Europe proposal would enable:

• 300 000 artists and cultural professionals and their work to receive funding to reach new audiences beyond their home countries;
• More than 5 500 books and other literary works would receive support for translation, allowing readers to enjoy them in their mother tongue;
• Thousands of cultural organisations and professionals would benefit from training to gain new skills and to strengthen their capacity to work internationally;
• At least 100 million people would be reached through the projects financed by the programme.

The new programme will consist of three strands: one for Culture, one for MEDIA and a trans-sectoral strand. Over the full period the new programme would allocate almost € 500 million for culture (presently covered by the Culture Programme). The Commission is also proposing to allocate more than €210 million for a new financial guarantee facility, which would enable cultural operators to access up to €1 billion in bank loans. Furthermore the programme's trans-sectoral strand, would provide around €60 million in support of trans-national policy cooperation and would also aim to foster innovative approaches to audience building and new business models.

"This investment will help tens of thousands of artists and culture andaudiovisual professionals to safeguard and promote cultural and linguistic diversity by making the most of the Single Market and to reach new audiences in Europe and beyond; without this support, it would be difficult or impossible for them to break into new markets. Creative Europe also promotes cultural and linguistic diversity, as well as contributes to our Europe 2020 objectives for jobs and sustainable growth," said Androulla Vassiliou, Commissioner for Education, Culture Multilingualism and Youth.