Europe is strengthened in the places where people meet, create, debate and shape their futures together.

How will the recently released Culture Compass for Europe address key European challenges through culture and unleash its greater potential and new partnerships?

The Culture Compass for Europe offers a vision and measures for an elevated place for culture on EU level which we applaud. Our aspirations during the Culture Compass consultations were to unfold an ambitious vision for Europe to which citizens can relate to, providing hope, inspiration and direction, which would embody Europe's key principles of democracy, solidarity, sustainability and diversity. We hope that the Compass will allow to test real-life solutions in practice.

The European Sentiment Compass 2025: 'Reality Show: Why Europe must not cave in to Trump's culture war' asks how Europeans can define their politics, values and identity, and defend a Europe that writes its own script.

The Europe Challenge 2025/26 supports 60 library-led initiatives across 26 countries to tackle climate, demomcracy, and digital challenge through community-driven action.

Culture is not a luxury, it is the foundation of Europe’s democracy, resilience, and shared identity and deserves to be funded.

Inside the archive are traces of some of the most significant cultural initiatives to shape post-war Europe.

In a year of rising tensions and shrinking civic space, ECF supported cultural initiatives that connected people across borders.

This is Europe being reimagined—not in institutions, but in neighbourhoods, by people who believe that culture is how we live together well

We support Europeans in responsibly navigating and shaping digital spaces. That is why we support PublicSpaces.

It's three years since Russia's full scale invasion of Ukraine. Our Ukrainian friends continue their heroic fight. They remind us that this is about Europe, and they are right. Ukraine’s future is in Europe, but there is no future without culture.

February 24 2025 marks three years since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. DutchCulture, the European Cultural Foundation, and the International Documentary Filmfestival Amsterdam present a double-bill of two special screenings on February 21.

How can culture shape the future of Europe? This question took centre stage at our annual policy conversation around the Cultural Deal for Europe, where cultural leaders, policymakers, and civil society gathered for the first public event to engage with the newly installed European Commission and Parliament on the proposed Culture Compass.

'Culture: the Compass for Europe's Future. Cultural Deal for Europe annual policy conversation' takes place on February 4 2025, from 14:00h to 18:00h. Learn more at culturaldeal.eu

Following our second round of the Democracy Resilience edition of the Culture of Solidarity Fund we welcome thirteen grantees in our community. These collaborative, creative initiatives will reinforce Europe’s core values and inspire Europeans to reengage with their democracies in a hopeful and forward-looking manner. 

Under the banner 'Imagining the Future of Europe' the festival concluded The European Pavilion 2024: Liquid Becomings from November 7 -9. For three days, a multidisciplinary programme put artistic creation and reflection at the heart of the debate on Europe’s future, promoting meaningful dialogues between artists and local communities.

Our third European Sentiment Compass - Welcome to Barbieland: European Sentiment in the year of wars and elections - identifies three blind spots European political leaders have that illustrate the difference between the principle and the reality of the EU’s Enlightenment ideals.

The first of four artistic crews participating in The European Pavilion 2024: Liquid Becomings set sail on the Danube on August 27. This marks the start of four journeys on four European rivers crossing 11 countries and travelling a combined distance of 1394 kilometres in which 37 independent artists and curators participate.

The European Pavilion 2024: Liquid Becomings brings together artists and curators from 17 nationalities. Their names and the routes the four boats will be sailing from August 27 onwards were announced on June 29 during an event in Belgrade.

We call for a Cultural Deal for Europe: for culture to be included in the EU’s funding programmes, sustainable development strategies, relations with the rest of the world, vision for our future. Can we also count on you to help us place culture at the heart of Europe?

The latest edition of the Culture of Solidarity Fund supports European transnational initiatives that mobilise voters for the 2024 European Parliament elections. This edition has been developed in collaboration with Evens Foundation, Allianz Foundation & partners. 

This is a key moment to make sure that culture is placed at the very heart of Europe’s future to help bring Europeans together at this pivotal point in our shared history.

The Europe Challenge is an annual programme that brings together teams from libraries and communities across Europe to address social isolation, inequality, disinformation, climate crises and other local challenges by developing, sharing and implementing creative solutions with support from the European Cultural Foundation and its partners. This edition runs from January to September 2024.

The Display Europe – Democracy Runs on Screens Call for Proposals has launched! Through Display Europe, we invite you to apply for a grant to produce journalistic content with European relevance, which will be made accessible through the new platform displ.eu.

The latest edition of the Culture of Solidarity Fund welcomed European transnational collaborative initiatives that address the theme of just transition and environmental sustainability from a specific cultural angle.

The 4th edition of the Forum on European Culture focuses on the meaning and future of democracy in Europe. The Forum brings together artists, activists and intellectuals to explore democracy as a cultural rather than a political expression.

The European Cultural Foundation invited you to organise Europe Day events in and with your local community! It may be big, it may be a small party with friends, it may be online or offline or both, as long as it takes place on May 9.This year we grow our online platform EuropeDay.eu into a festival, with an events agenda prior to Europe Day, and an online (streaming) programme on May 9 itself. We want to bring thousands of Europeans together to experience and share these events. You join in?

"The digital rights field is dominated by complex language, jargon and policy-focused dialogue, which makes it more difficult for individuals from non-digital or policy backgrounds to understand and relate to these everyday threats to our digital rights. That is why we would like to use stories and a hope-based approach to reinforce a narrative with inspiring ideas to regain control against power imbalances and promote healthy alternatives to toxic technology uses."