Friday

29th Mar 2024

Letter

Bjork, Abba & 43 others call on summit to save European arts

  • The 45 signatories to the letter includes Belgian film-makers the Dardenne brothers, twice winners of the Palm d'Or at Cannes (Photo: European Parliament)

European culture is in the midst of a crisis. How decision-makers choose to respond now will set the scene for the next decade of cultural and creative life in our union.

Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, theatres, cinemas, music halls, museums and other venues of cultural expression have remained closed. Many of those venues will simply not reopen.

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

  • Icelandic singer Bjork is another signatory, as well as Danish singer and producer MØ (Photo: Wikipedia)

The result has been to squeeze the life out of the cultural and creative sectors, exacerbating the desperately perilous situation in which culture, the arts and the creative sectors at large find themselves.

Cultural and creative sectors are Europe's third largest employer. Meaning the economic consequences of a stagnant sector have reached far beyond the realm of culture.

But, despite such a diminished cultural landscape, it is to culture that we have all turned during this time of great personal and societal adversity.

It is music that has brought us together on balconies, films and TV series that have entertained us, documentaries, books, performances, pieces of art that have all truly comforted us in our solitude and helped us to escape intellectually and creatively.

Europe's most treasured asset is our culture. It is a culture united in its diversity, a culture that draws in millions of people from all over the world every single month.

Cultural expression in all its diversity is at the heart of what is meant to be European.

Despite strong messages from leaders of the European Union that our sectors would be firmly supported, the current proposals for a recovery plan and a European budget strangely fail to consider the needs of the cultural and creative sectors.

As creators and professionals from the sector, we call on the EU leaders to be bold and to invest in culture and the arts, to invest in all our creative futures.

We need a plan that revives our cultural ecosystem and inspires the next generation of Europeans.

This means providing the financial resources at a level which will allow art, culture, cultural and creative enterprises, creators and creative workers to continue their work, to survive and thrive into the future.

This is an opportunity for the EU to amply demonstrate that it can honour its values. The time is now for Europe to be ambitious and invest in its creative future.

Culture is the fertile soil out of which Europe's next generation will unite and flourish. Let's show Europe's next generations what kind of future we want to offer them.

List of signatories

Aga Zaryan, jazz vocalist (PL)

Agnieszka Holland, filmmaker (PL)

Agustín Almodóvar, producer (ES)

Alberto Guijarro, director of Primavera Sound and Sala Apolo (ES)

Alberto Iglesias, film music composer (ES)

Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, contemporary dance choreographer (BE)

Benny Andersson, musician, composer (SE)

Bernie Sherlock, conductor (IE)

Björk, singer-songwriter (IS)

Charles Sturridge, filmmaker (UK)

Dame Evelyn Glennie, percussionist and composer (UK)

Daniel Buren, conceptual visual artist (FR)

Isabel Coixet, filmmaker (ES)

István Szabó, filmmaker (HU)

Ivo van Hove, theatre director (NL/BE)

Jaco Van Dormael, filmmaker (BE)

Jean-Michel Jarre, electronic music pioneer, musician (FR)

Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, filmmakers (BE)

Jean-Xavier de Lestrade, filmmaker (FR)

Joan Fontcuberta, conceptual artist and photographer (ES)

Lisa Kaindé Diaz Zayas and Naomi Diaz Zayas - IBEYI, singers, songwriters, and music composers (FR)

Marian Urban, Scriptwriter and Film Producer (SK)

Marina Abramović, performance artist (US/SRB)

Martin Šulík, Film Director and Film Producer (SK)

Maryla Rodowicz, singer (PL)

Michał Urbaniak, musician and composer (PL)

Milo Rau, theatre director (BE/CH)

Mirga Grazinyte, conductor (LT/UK)

MØ, singer, songwriter, and record producer (DK)

Moritz Eggert, composer (DE)

Nele Neuhaus, writer (DE)

Nicola Campogrande, composer (IT)

Nina Bouraoui, writer (FR)

Nina George, writer (DE)

Olga Neuwirth, composer (AT)

Olivier Guez, writer (FR)

Paul Dujardin, CEO & artistic director of BOZAR (BE)

Phil Manzanera, composer, guitarist (UK)

Salvador Sobral, musician (PT)

Sebastian Fitzek, writer (DE)

Stijn Coninx, film director (BE)

Thomas Anargyros, producer (FR)

Tiago Rodrigues, writer, director, artistic director Teatro Nacional D. Maria II (PT)

Tim Etchells, artistic director, artist, writer (UK)

Yuval Weinberg, conductor (IL/DE)

Author bio

This op-ed was coordinated by Liveurope to highlight the EU Commission's proposal to reduce the Creative Europe budget to €1.5bn from the initially proposed €1.8bn.

Disclaimer

The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author's, not those of EUobserver.

On toppling statues

The internationally-acclaimed author of King Leopold's Ghost, Adam Hochschild, writes on Belgium's problems with statues, in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement.

How ABBA distorted our perceptions of Sweden

The 'Waterloo'-era 1970s was indeed a positive and thriving time in Sweden, during which much progress was made in society. That progress, driven by the Social Democrats, with Olof Palme as prime minister, ensured a high-level welfare state.

EU Modernisation Fund: an open door for fossil gas in Romania

Among the largest sources of financing for energy transition of central and eastern European countries, the €60bn Modernisation Fund remains far from the public eye. And perhaps that's one reason it is often used for financing fossil gas projects.

Why UK-EU defence and security deal may be difficult

Rather than assuming a pro-European Labour government in London will automatically open doors in Brussels, the Labour party needs to consider what it may be able to offer to incentivise EU leaders to factor the UK into their defence thinking.

Why UK-EU defence and security deal may be difficult

Rather than assuming a pro-European Labour government in London will automatically open doors in Brussels, the Labour party needs to consider what it may be able to offer to incentivise EU leaders to factor the UK into their defence thinking.

Column

EU's Gaza policy: boon for dictators, bad for democrats

While they woo dictators and autocrats, EU policymakers are becoming ever more estranged from the world's democrats. The real tragedy is the erosion of one of Europe's key assets: its huge reserves of soft power, writes Shada Islam.

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