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Letter from the Europaplatform to the cabinet Back

Letter from the Europaplatform to the cabinet

20 May 2020

The Europaplatform calls on Dutch Ministers to support the cultural and creative sectors in Europe with concrete actions, measures and finance, as the problems are very urgent due to the Covid-19 crisis. Co-matching is an immediate problem and partners in European cooperation projects are backing down. In the letter, current and future problems and possible actions and chances are highlighted. Truly extraordinary times require extraordinary efforts and imagination from all of us.

The Europaplatform called on the ministers to include the letter in the video conference with the EU ministers of culture on 19 May and in the other respective Council committee meetings. Read the letter in Dutch here.

Summary of the video conference of ministers of culture:

Where the previous virtual meeting of the European ministers of culture of 8 April was focused on immediate measures, today’s meeting looked at the medium and long-term, as restrictions are being lifted gradually.

Nina Obuljen Koržinek (Minister of Culture Croatia) stated that it was agreed during the meeting that:

  • It is important to continue mapping and following the situation in Europe.
  • There is a need for a joint and decisive approach that is going to be in line with European principles and values.
  • There is a fundamental role for media, which is crucial for the fight against disinformation.
  • The Member States must align their legislation with the intellectual property rights directives in order to favour our culture & media diversity, and it needs to protect artists, creators and performers.
  • The exchange between the Ministers of Culture will continue during the German Presidency of the European Council, which rotates on 1 July.

Apart from an update on the recently launched online platforms, Mariya Gabriel (Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth) announced that:

  • Various calls will soon be launched within Creative Europe, Music Moves Europe (reprogramming of 2,5 million) and Erasmus+ (100 million).
  • There is a need to look into how culture can be better embedded within other EU programmes and instruments (f.e. Horizon Europe for research) or where synergies can be created (in Knowledge and Innovation Communities as part from the European Institute of Innovation & Technology starting in 2022)
  • Member States have started to use the three horizontal measures (CRII, SURE, State Aid) to benefit the cultural sector.

For the upcoming weeks, the importance of an increased budget for Creative Europe and synergies with other funding instruments as Horizon Europe and the European Innovation Institute is on the agenda, particularly in order to support local and regional development.

To watch the full video conference of ministers of culture click here.

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