EU culture budget: small and likely to get smaller

When EU leaders meet in Brussels in November for what is expected to be long round of hard negotiations on the bloc’s new seven-year budget, culture will not be on everyone’s mind.

Allowed only “to support, coordinate or supplement” the policies of its member states, the EU today spends little more than 0.1 percent of what it has on subsidies for the arts - some €170 million per year.

It is less than what Estonia spends on culture. Germany alone spends €9 billion per year. Even Sp...