Strategy

The Continue Change Strategy establishes ECF’s vision for the next five years, building on past achievements and addressing contemporary challenges. This strategy focuses on four interconnected areas to deepen European sentiment and solidarity through culture:

Connecting Libraries of Europe to a European Social Network
Libraries are more than repositories of knowledge; they are vibrant cultural hubs where communities gather to learn, share ideas, and engage with their heritage. ECF will connect European libraries to create a dynamic network that bridges local stories with continental narratives. Shared programming on topics like climate literacy and cultural exchange will transform libraries into nodes of collaboration and belonging.

Empowering European Digital Citizenship
ECF champions a cultural approach to online engagement in a world shaped by misinformation and digital divides. Through workshops, creative campaigns, and educational tools, ECF supports young Europeans in responsibly navigating and shaping digital spaces. These efforts promote critical thinking, foster meaningful dialogue, and safeguard democratic values, ensuring Europe’s digital future reflects its cultural diversity.

Growing a European Culture of Solidarity
Solidarity is a cornerstone of Europe’s identity, transcending borders and crises. Through the Culture of Solidarity Fund, ECF supports initiatives that use art, storytelling, and collective action to strengthen connections across communities. For instance, projects addressing local challenges like refugee integration or cultural preservation showcase how solidarity transforms shared struggles into opportunities for growth.

Imagining Philanthropy for Europe
Philanthropy has the potential to drive long-term cultural and societal impact. ECF envisions a collaborative, cross-border philanthropic ecosystem that connects local initiatives with continental ambitions. By mobilising resources and fostering partnerships, ECF supports projects that celebrate Europe’s shared heritage while addressing pressing issues, from sustainability to social cohesion.

These focus areas reflect ECF’s commitment to leveraging culture as a force for connection and innovation and celebrating Europe’s shared heritage and collective identity. Together, they pave the way for a future where culture inspires collaboration, solidarity, and belonging across borders.

We have a vision for Europe. A continent where all can live, work, dream and express themselves freely, in diversity and harmony. Where we share a sense of belonging based on solidarity, mutual respect between people and with collaborations across borders of all kinds.

We believe in the power of culture to achieve this Europe. Culture helps us negotiate ways of living together, build and understand our multiple identities and make Europe our home. It offers the space to question and redefine the principles we stand for and helps develop and preserve feelings of mutual comprehension and solidarity.

Feeling European does not come from pie charts and growth rates. It comes from sharing stories and experiences. Culture connects and unites us and invites us to imagine different futures.

Our original statutes state, “The European Cultural Foundation was created for the stimulation of the European sentiment, to promote the development and preservation of a feeling of mutual comprehension and democratic solidarity between the peoples of Europe by encouraging cultural and educational activities of common interest”. Our original mission is as relevant today as it was in 1954, as nationalism is making a strong come-back, while polarisation within societies and fragmentation between countries are both increasing.

A resilient Europe needs a sentiment of democratic solidarity between the people of Europe. With it, we can master challenges together. But without it, Europe is vulnerable to division, regression, and setbacks. This is the problem we are addressing.

We have invested in this mission for 70 years and it will likely take another 70 years or even longer to sustain such European sentiment in an ever-changing world. We consider our mission as a “cathedral mission” – a mission that goes beyond the lifetimes of us as individual cathedral builders.

In times of uncertainty and unpredictability, a clear set of values provides a yardstick and compass for action. Living our European values is the best way of defending them.

In times where core values are being challenged around the world, in Europe and even inside the EU, stating our values openly is not an act of marketing. It is an act of understanding our history, showing attitude and aspiration. Our values are the basis of who we are and what we do.

We believe in the appreciation and celebration of our diversity. Europe is the product of a culture of exchange. Diversity is a matter of life. It is not always easy to manage but without it, a good life in Europe is not possible and it would be boring.

Diversity is a value, but it is also a method.

Culture must be free, and Europe should stand and fight for cultural freedom in Europe and worldwide.

Out of the ashes of our history, we have built a Europe based on democracy and the rule of law.

We believe this is essential and must not be taken for granted. But equally, democracy needs continuous work and imagination.

We believe in the power of human dignity and ingenuity, whether as a response to the suffering of people who need our solidarity or as a response to the challenges of unbound technology.

We believe in the equality of people, and we believe in the equality of opportunities in achieving every individual’s best potential.

We believe in freedom – in the freedom to express oneself, in the freedom of conscience, the freedom of movement, the freedom of the media, the freedom to challenge those in power and the freedom to resist regression and destruction.

We believe in the best of people, in the power of hope, curiosity, and optimism. This alone is not enough, but without it, a better world is not possible.

In 1954, our founder Denis de Rougemont wrote about the ‘necessity to awake a common sentiment of the European’.  “Unless there is a fairly rapid and general awareness of the danger that all our countries are running together, but also of the immense resources that Europe would still have at its disposal on the sole condition of uniting – all the treaties and acts that can be concluded will be insufficient, will come too late, or will remain a dead letter. If, on the contrary, a sense of common destiny is awakened among Europeans, most of the obstacles that exist today will seem easier to overcome, or even vanish since they consist of prejudice, partisan blindness, unfounded mistrust and, above all, ignorance of the real situation.”