Creative Europe, a new program sponsored by the European Commission, aims to support cultural production around the continent.
Artinfo reports that it is the world’s largest-ever cultural funding program. It will represent a 35% increase to the current budget the European Union allocates toward culture, and is “part of a larger Pan-European goal to stimulate the economy through cultural enterprise,” a sector that accounts for 4.5 percent of the EU’s GDP. With a proposed budget of €1.8 billion for 2014-2020, the new program will allocate over €900 million in support of cinema and audiovisual endeavors and nearly €500 million for culture. Around €60 million will go toward supporting trans-national policy cooperation and funding new business models and approaches to building audiences. Additionally, the Commission proposes to allocate more than €210 million for a financial guarantee facility that would facilitate loans for cultural producers up to a total of €1 billion.
Androulla Vassiliou, Commissioner for Education, Culture Multilingualism and Youth, stated:”This investment will help tens of thousands of artists and culture andaudiovisual professionals … Without this support, it would be difficult or impossible for them to break into new markets.”
