The European Commission published its proposal for the Creative Europe Programme that will run from 2021 to 2027.
For the MEDIA strand in particular, they will introduce incentives to reward results and they will streamline it, for example, by grouping together beneficiaries and reducing the number of underlying grant contracts and payment transactions.
It's always interesting and useful to share a brief overview of the key elements of the Creative Europe programme. The proposal reinforces the EU's cultural and creative sectors on three areas:
Culture covers cultural and creative sectors excluding the audiovisual one:
- €609 million will be allocated to promoting Europe's cultural and creative sectors.
- Cooperation projects, networks and platforms will be set up to connect talented artists across Europe and make it easier for creators to cooperate across borders.
MEDIA is dedicated to the audiovisual sector:
- €1.081 billion will fund audiovisual projects and stimulate competitiveness in the audiovisual sector in Europe.
- The MEDIA programme will continue to support the development, distribution and promotion of European films, TV programmes and video games, with a particular attention to supporting collaboration and innovation in the creation and production of EU works.
- More money will be invested in the international promotion and distribution of European works and innovative storytelling, including virtual reality.
- An online directory of EU films will be created to reinforce the accessibility and visibility of European works.
Cross-sectoral strand with €160 million to fund SMEs and other organisations working across cultural and creative sectors with cross-cutting actions including:
- Policy cooperation and outreach stimulating transnational exchange of experience and know-how in the cultural and creative sector;
- The Creative Innovation Lab to encourage new forms of creation at the crossroads between different cultural and creative sectors and with the use of innovative technologies;
- Music sectorial actions;
- Cross-cutting activities supporting news media sector incl. media literacy, quality content and collaborative journalism.