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Culture and Creativity

Creative Europe 2014-2020

In 2014, the European Union consolidated its support for the audiovisual and cultural sectors into a stand-alone funding programme – the Creative Europe programme.

The purpose of the consolidation was to recognize both the similar challenges and opportunities across all creative sectors and that support at European level is fundamental for information exchange and cooperation.

About the programme

With a budget of €1.46billion over 7 years, the programme included 2 independent sub-programmes, CULTURE and MEDIA, and a Cross-Sectoral strand.

  • MEDIA provided support to the European audiovisual sector
  • CULTURE supported a wide range of cultural and creative sectors, including architecture, cultural heritage, design, literature, music, and performing arts.
  • The Cross-Sectoral strand financed the setting up of a Guarantee Facility for the cultural and creative sectors. It also funded the European Audiovisual Observatory and the network of Creative Europe Desks, along with support for transnational policy cooperation.

Objectives of the programme

The dual objective of the Programme was to safeguard cultural and linguistic diversity and strengthen the competitiveness of the European cultural and creative sectors.

The first Creative Europe programme helped European artists, creators and content to find more opportunities and to reach new audiences beyond national borders.

The programme encouraged organisations to cooperate across disciplines and borders, as well as to develop new practices and innovations to reinforce the competitiveness and the resilience of the cultural and creative sectors.

Achievements of the programme

The programme contributed significantly to achieving its long-term objectives to safeguard cultural diversity and strengthen the competitiveness of the Culture and Creative sectors. Many new initiatives launched to foster the circulation of European works and artists within and outside Europe and to accompany the different cultural sectors in their evolution.

Overall figures show that the programme provided over 13,000 grants between 2014 and 2020, It also co-financed training for over 16,000 professionals, 647 cultural cooperation projects between 3,760 organisations across Europe, the development and/or distribution of over 5,000 films, the operation of 1,144 cinemas and the translation of 3500 books all over Europe.

More detailed information on the achievements of the programme can be found in the 2020 Creative Europe Monitoring Report.

Next steps

Building on the success of the first programme, a new Creative Europe programme was launched in May 2021 covering the period 2021-2027.

The budget of the programme increased significantly to invest in actions that reinforce cultural diversity and respond to the needs and challenges of the cultural and creative sectors. Its novelties will contribute to the recovery of these sectors, reinforcing their efforts to become more digital, greener, more resilient and more inclusive.