Cultural and creative organisations wishing to bid for funding in 2014 through Creative Europe, the European Union’s new programme for the cultural and creative sectors, can start to prepare their grant applications from today. They will find the first details of funding opportunities (‘calls for proposals’) here. To help prepare their application, the new Creative Europe Programme Guide contains a wealth of information about the funding process. Nearly €170 million in funding is available under the programme’s first calls for 2014. Individuals cannot apply directly for grants; instead they should contact relevant organisations such as cultural associations, festivals, theatres and film distributors etc. which make the application, or their national Creative Europe desk.
“Over the next seven years, the Creative Europe programme will provide funding for transnational projects which will enable 250 000 artists and cultural professionals to reach new audiences abroad. It will also invest strongly in the European film industry, with support for 2 000 cinemas and hundreds of films. Authors and publishers will benefit from support for translation and we will continue to provide funding for the European Capitals of Culture and many other initiatives,” said Androulla Vassiliou, Commissioner for Education, Culture Multilingualism and Youth.
Creative Europe, which will have a total budget of €1.46 billion1 over the next seven years – 9% more than current levels – will support artists, cultural professionals and cultural organisations in fields such as the performing arts, fine arts, publishing, film, TV, music, video games, interdisciplinary arts, heritage and video games to operate in other countries and develop the skills that are needed in the digital age. By increasing the visibility of European cultural works in other countries, it will also promote cultural and linguistic diversity.
In addition to Culture and MEDIA sub-programmes, Creative Europe will include a cross-sector strand to support policy cooperation, transversal measures and a new financial guarantee facility, which will enable small and medium sized enterprises in the cultural and creative sectors to access up to €750 million in bank loans. The facility will be operational from 2016.
Background
It is estimated that Creative Europe programme will enable:
- 250 000 artists and cultural professionals and their work to receive funding to reach new audiences beyond their home countries;
- More than 800 European films to receive distribution support and therefore be seen by audiences throughout Europe and the world;
- At least 2 000 European cinemas to benefit from the support to European cinema network enabling them to ensure that at least 50% of the films they screen are European;
- More than 4 500 books and other literary works to receive support for translation, allowing readers to enjoy them in their mother tongue;
- Thousands of cultural and audiovisual organisations and professionals to benefit from training to gain new skills and to strengthen their capacity to work internationally.
The European Capitals of Culture, the European Heritage Label, the European Heritage Days as well as 5 prizes in the field of culture and audiovisual are also supported through Creative Europe.
The new programme, which replaces the MEDIA, MEDIA Mundus and Culture programmes, will allocate 56% of its budget to the support of the cinema and audiovisual sector and 31% for culture.
The European cultural and creative sectors represent up to 4.5% of European GDP and account for some 3.8% of the EU workforce (8.5 million people).
For more information
Creative Europe video
Creative Europe Programme Guide
European Commission
Androulla Vassiliou’s website
Follow Androulla Vassiliou on Twitter @VassiliouEU
1 : €1.46 billion taking account of estimated inflation. This is the equivalent of €1.3 billion in ‘fixed’ 2011 prices.
