European Parliament calls for more support for the cultural sector

On 17 September, the European Parliament called for direct EU funding to support European culture and creators who have continued to be severely affected by the COVID-19 crisis.
In the resolution, which was adopted with 598 votes in favour, 42 against and 46 abstentions, MEPs are 'alarmed' that the resources for the restoration of the 'new generation of Europe' will not be allocated to directly supporting European culture. They call on the Commission and the Member States to allocate at least 2% of the recovery and flexibility funding to the cultural and creative sectors and industry.

They recall that European culture is not only a strategic sector that conveys European values and way of life, but also accounts for 4% of European GDP and 3.7% of all employment in the EU. They stress that the cultural sector and creators are likely to have lost as much as 80% of turnover during the COVID-19 crisis and continue to be affected by health and safety measures with "catastrophic financial consequences".

Insufficient long-term financing

The European Parliament reaffirms its position by repeatedly calling for the overall budget of the Creative Europe programme, which is very widely requested and underfunded, to be increased to EUR 2.8 billion over the next long-term budget, thereby doubling the funds allocated for the 2014-2020 period.

Restrict unjustified travel restrictions

They note that travel restrictions continue to hinder the promotion of European culture by restricting touring and international mobility, and call on EU countries to curtail "unjustified Schengen restrictions". Instead, the Commission should develop guidelines for Member States on safe cross-border touring and the organisation of cultural events, they say.

Access to freelancers

MEPs are concerned about the lack of access to financial resources and social security for many freelancers and micro-organisations, which largely make up the cultural and creative sectors. They call on member states to look for ways to support informal entities in the sector and to provide adequate guarantees so that the EU SURE funds to support short-term work measures can function quickly and are accessible to all.

Support for the media

Stressing that free, independent and adequately funded media are the antidote to disinformation, they point to the currently weakened media ecosystem and ask the Commission to present medium- and long-term strategies with concrete initiatives to support the media and to consider setting up a media fund.