site.btaEU Culture Ministers Send Joint Letter in Support of Cultural Sectors at EU Level under Creative Europe Programme

Supporting the cultural and creative sectors at the EU level, Bulgaria’s caretaker Culture Minister Nayden Todorov and the rest of the culture ministers of the EU member states sent a joint letter to Henna Virkkunen - Executive Vice-President of the European Commission for Technological Sovereignty, Security and Democracy, Glenn Micallef - EU Commissioner for Intergenerational Fairness, Youth, Culture, and Sport, and Piotr Serafin – EU Commissioner for Budget, Anti-Fraud, and Public Administration, the Culture Ministry said in a press release on Tuesday.

In their letter, the culture ministers voice their strong support for the European Commission's ongoing efforts to strengthen the cultural and creative sectors across Europe and highlight the crucial role of the Creative Europe Programme in safeguarding and promoting European cultural diversity, creativity, artistic freedom, and freedom of expression.

The Creative Europe Programme has been and continues to be an essential tool for protecting and promoting cultural diversity, cultural heritage, and creativity and supporting the audiovisual sector in Europe, the ministers’ letter reads. They emphasize that, as the only European programme specifically designed to support cooperation and content creation by cultural and creative organizations and professionals, it effectively captures the sector's unique essence. Through tools for cross-border cooperation among cultural and creative organizations of all sizes, mobility for cultural professionals, and the dissemination of high-quality cultural content, the programme significantly contributes to the intrinsic value of culture.

The ministers insist that the cultural and creative sectors, including the audiovisual industry, require effective and sector-specific EU incentives. Such incentives must be visible and designed to support cultural cooperation and content creation, they said.

Only with such targeted measures can the long-term sustainability of the sector, as well as the competitiveness and vibrancy of the European cultural and creative ecosystem, be safeguarded, conclude the culture ministers of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Croatia, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, and Sweden.