Up-date on the campaign to include "culture" in the EU recovery fund

The pandemic is having a major impact on the creative industries. The Coronavirus Response Investment Initiative is a welcome sign of support for the sector, although funds have yet to reach businesses. The creative industries should be recognised as a key sector in the recovery funds.

In the last couple of weeks CEPIC has signed several letters respective to the place allocated in the EU budget for the next seven years,

See here: http://cepic.org/news/make-culture-central-in-the-eu-recovery-open-letter

here : http://cepic.org/news/call-of-the-cultural-and-creative-industries

Or here: http://cepic.org/news/investeu-ensuring-support-for-cultural-and-creative-businesses

Requests were threefold:

• Enlarge access to affordable debt and equity financing (InvestEU)
• Dedicate 2% of the COVID-19 recovery plan (RRF) to the cultural and creative sectors
• Double the budget for culture in the 2021-27 programme of the EU

The result is a mixed bag.

The MFF negotiators from the European Parliament managed to push through an additional sum of 600 million euros for the Creative Europe programme: the budget was increased to 2.2 billion euros for the next seven years.

Meanwhile, a political agreement among the groups of the EP was reached on the RRF and, unfortunately, a dedicated percentage was not added for culture. Nevertheless, culture has been added in the objectives of the facility and in the eligible measures.

Read the open letter of MEP Niklas Nienaß here ...