Thursday

28th Mar 2024

EU culture budget: small and likely to get smaller

  • The EU spends less on culture than Estonia does (Photo: Wikipedia)

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.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Get the EU news that really matters

Instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

It is less than what Estonia spends on culture. Germany alone spends €9 billion per year. Even Spain, who over the last five years has cut its culture budget in half, spends almost five times as much.

But even if in the grand scheme of things EU culture money may not amount to much, it does make a difference, experts say, since it goes beyond national borders.

"More or less whatever is European circulation of works of art and professionals [...] is largely depending on the EU policy," Luca Bergamo, secretary-general of Culture Action Europe, a network of cultural associations in Europe, told EUobserver.

"It plays an essential role," he added.

The European Commission, for its part, agrees.

“[The EU budget for culture] focuses on very specific projects where the EU added value is clear, like transnational cooperation [or] projects promoting cultural and linguistic diversity,” Dennis Abbott, EU culture spokesperson, told EUobserver.

“We're not replacing or duplicating work by individual member states,” he added.

Cultural organisations recently welcomed a proposal to increase the money available by more than half.

If approved next month, the EU’s culture budget will jump from less than €1.2 billion for 2007-2013 to more than €1.8 for 2014-2020.

“It’s an important sign,” Bergamo said.

He noted that over the last couple of years, national governments have been cutting culture subsidies in an effort to rein in debts and deficits.

“It’s been a trend in the whole of Europe,” he said.

A rise in EU money may offset some of that pain.

The commission says more money will not only help to make more films or translate more books, it will also boost a sector in the economy with “impressive growth potential.”

It says that over the first half of the last decade, employment in the culture sector in Europe grew by an average of 3.5 percent, compared with only one percent in general.

Today, the sector is said to employ some 8.5 million people in the EU, or 3.8 percent of its total workforce. It contributes some 4.5 percent to the union’s GDP.

Yet for all its importance and relative smallness, the proposed €1.8 billion is unlikely to emerge unscathed.

As with all regular law proposals, both MEPs and member states have to agree.

MEPs have welcomed the proposed increase. But member states are under pressure to spend as little as possible. They are expected to bring down the new budget, which as proposed is slightly higher than before.

“What I can say at this stage it that we will have cuts across the board. At present nobody can be more specific,” said Nikos Christodoulides, spokesperson for Cyprus which holds the rotating EU presidency and will chair the negotiations.

For her part, Doris Pack, centre-right German MEP and chair of the culture committee in the European Parliament, is annoyed by such indiscriminate cutting.

“It is ridiculous to make such a mess from such a small programme. I think it should survive,” she said.

Culture in figures: Nordics most engaged

In general in Europe, those in the north are more culturally savvy than those in the south, if statistics are anything to go by. But there are some outliers.

Culture in Europe

For cash-strapped EU member states, spending on culture is not a priority. Yet the sector drives economic growth and employs millions of people across the European Union. EUobserver looks at the issues.

EU commisisoner Šuica sounds alarm on demographic shift

The EU will have to step up its efforts to tackle looming demographic challenges over the next five years. If not, the bloc faces "sleepwalking into dark scenarios", warns EU commission vice-president Dubravka Šuica.

Latest News

  1. Kenyan traders react angrily to proposed EU clothes ban
  2. Lawyer suing Frontex takes aim at 'antagonistic' judges
  3. Orban's Fidesz faces low-polling jitters ahead of EU election
  4. German bank freezes account of Jewish peace group
  5. EU Modernisation Fund: an open door for fossil gas in Romania
  6. 'Swiftly dial back' interest rates, ECB told
  7. Moscow's terror attack, security and Gaza
  8. Why UK-EU defence and security deal may be difficult

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Nordic Council of MinistersJoin the Nordic Food Systems Takeover at COP28
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersHow women and men are affected differently by climate policy
  3. Nordic Council of MinistersArtist Jessie Kleemann at Nordic pavilion during UN climate summit COP28
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersCOP28: Gathering Nordic and global experts to put food and health on the agenda
  5. Friedrich Naumann FoundationPoems of Liberty – Call for Submission “Human Rights in Inhume War”: 250€ honorary fee for selected poems
  6. World BankWorld Bank report: How to create a future where the rewards of technology benefit all levels of society?

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsThis autumn Europalia arts festival is all about GEORGIA!
  2. UNOPSFostering health system resilience in fragile and conflict-affected countries
  3. European Citizen's InitiativeThe European Commission launches the ‘ImagineEU’ competition for secondary school students in the EU.
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersThe Nordic Region is stepping up its efforts to reduce food waste
  5. UNOPSUNOPS begins works under EU-funded project to repair schools in Ukraine
  6. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsGeorgia effectively prevents sanctions evasion against Russia – confirm EU, UK, USA

Join EUobserver

EU news that matters

Join us