Europa Nostra contributes to meeting on future EU Creative Europe programme

Europa Nostra participated in a stakeholders’ meeting on the future Creative Europe programme of the European Union on 25 September at the European Parliament in Brussels. Upon invitation from Silvia Costa, Member of the European Parliament’s Committee on Culture and Education, Europa Nostra together with several other representatives of the cultural and creative sector shared theirs views on the future EU funding programme Creative Europe.The underlying idea was to provide feedback to the rapporteur of the European Parliament, Silvia Costa MEP, and the shadow rapporteurs on the proposal made by the European Commission in May 2018.

Among the participating stakeholders were several member of the European Heritage Alliance 3.3 such as Future for Religious Heritage, European Historic Houses Association, Network of European Museum Organisations, EUROCITIES and Europeana. As coordinator of the European Heritage Alliance 3.3, Europa Nostra’s Secretary General Sneška Quaedvlieg-Mihailović also spoke on behalf of Alliance members who had not been invited.

This morning at @Europarl_EN in #Brussels: Stakeholders unanimously support the @EPCulture proposal to double the budget for new #CreativeEurope programme at important hearing by Rapporteur @SilviaCostaEU & Shadow Rapporteurs a.o. @HelgaTruepel & @M_DiaconuMEP #EuropeForCulture pic.twitter.com/aYhKrl6Rco

— Sneška Quaedvlieg-Mihailović (@SneskaEN) September 25, 2018

Sneška Quaedvlieg-Mihailović welcomed the proposal for a stand-alone programme for Creative Europe and the increased budget compared to the current programme, yet highlighted that this was not sufficient. She therefore voiced her strong support for doubling the budget as proposed by the European Parliament Culture Committee. Moreover, she stressed the need to sustain the legacy of the European Year of Cultural Heritage 2018 and provide for a stronger support to stakeholders from the field of cultural heritage, so as to maintain and foster the capacities developed so far. In particular, Europa Nostra’s Secretary General called for a permanent multi-stakeholder platform for cultural heritage to be supported by the Creative Europe programme, which is also one of the key demands of the Berlin Call to Action “Cultural Heritage for the Future of Europe”.