Creative Europe: Increased budget in 2022 to support cultural and creative sectors

This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission.

Today, the Commission has adopted the 2022 work programme of Creative Europe, which will be followed by the launch of the relevant calls for proposals. With a budget of around €385 million, nearly €100 million more compared to 2021, Creative Europe strengthens its support to creative and cultural partners taking due account of the challenges resulting from the COVID-19 crisis and the growing global competition.

Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, Mariya Gabriel, said: “Cultural and creative sectors are the soul of European society. We know how resilient the creative and cultural sectors have been in these past two years. In 2022, Creative Europe will benefit from its biggest budget ever. The EU stands by their side to support their recovery, their creative process and their innovation potential. We invite artists, creators and culture professionals to explore and benefit from the many funding opportunities provided by Creative Europe.”

Commissioner for Internal Market, Thierry Breton, added: “In 2022, we will intensify our support to Europe’s cultural and creative sector heavily hit by the COVID-19 crisis, from cinemas to festivals. With our Creative Europe programme, we will mobilise unprecedented € 226 million for audiovisual and € 35 million for cross- sectoral cooperation, including the news media. Creative Europe will invest in innovation in digital technologies and new types of content, from high-end TV series to virtual reality.  And as part of our efforts to protect media freedom in the EU, we will fund journalism partnerships, strengthen professional standards and promote media literacy.”

The culture strand of the programme will include new calls and initiatives for the music, cultural heritage, performing arts and literature sectors. In addition, it will launch a mobility scheme, offering opportunities to artists, creators or cultural professionals to go abroad for professional development or for international collaborations, and to find new audiences, co-produce, co-create or present their work.

The MEDIA strand focuses on audio-visual and several novelties are introduced in 2022. Support to the development of innovative video games and virtual reality experiences will be funded.  A new action, ‘MEDIA 360 degrees’ will target leading industrial fora engaging with businesses across the audio-visual value chain. To further boost innovation the Media Market Gateway will be launched for promising start-ups. Collaboration between film festivals will be strengthened through networks.

Finally, the cross-sectoral strand will increase funding for the Creative Innovation Lab for joint-innovation projects involving several creative sectors, contributing also to the New European Bauhaus. It will also widen support to the news media through additional measures to nurture media freedom.

Creative Europe will also address key issues affecting the cultural and creative sectors. MEDIA funded projects will be required to implement strategies for greening and diversity, including gender balance. Creative Europe will therefore contribute significantly to the political priorities of the Commission on sustainability and inclusion. The programme will include initiatives that cover additional EU priorities, such as the contribution to the EU Strategy on combating antisemitism and fostering Jewish life – as well as the European Year of Youth.

Cultural and creative sectors are also encouraged to use CulturEU, the recently launched online guide to all EU funding available to them. The interactive website gathers a total of 75 funding opportunities from 21 different EU programmes, from Creative Europe and Horizon Europe to structural funds and InvestEU.

Background

The cultural and creative sectors have always been a rich facet of European life, contributing to Europe’s social cohesion and diversity, as well as its economy, representing 4.2% of the EU’s total GDP and 3.7% of the EU’s workforce.

The total budget available for Creative Europe from 2021 to 2027 amounts to around €2.4 billion, an increase of 63% compared with 2014-2020. The increased budget reflects the European Union’s commitment to help the sector recover and foster resilience in the years ahead. The programme has three strands:

• The Culture strand covers all areas of the cultural and creative sectors except the audio-visual and news media sectors;
• The MEDIA strand provides support for the audio-visual and film sectors, and;
• The cross-sectoral strand provides opportunities for cross-sectoral collaboration.

Public and private bodies active in the creative sectors can apply for funding with the help of the Creative Europe Desks, based in all EU Member States and third countries associated to the programme.

Details on the specific actions and related application deadlines are available on the dedicated website.