Programme: Creative Europe - Culture Strand 2021

In 2021, the CULTURE strand of Creative Europe will continue to be anchored to policy development and EU policy cooperation in the field of culture, notably in line with the objectives of the 2018 New European Agenda for Culture and the Council Work Plan for Culture 2019-2022. Policy cooperation will also cover emerging priorities and high-level initiatives such as the New European Bauhaus.

The Programme will mainstream through its actions the cross-cutting issues of inclusion and diversity, notably gender balance, and greening of Creative Europe.

In this context, the Programme intends to pursue the following priorities:

• Resilience and recovery: in 2021, more than 80 million EUR will be allocated to support cooperation projects, circulation of Literary works, platforms and networks in the culture field. These actions are meant to be instruments to help the recovery and resilience of the cultural and creative sectors in light of the COVID-19 crisis. Through these actions, the Programme will support a wide range of projects and initiatives to help cultural operators, artists and workers in the culture field get out from the crisis, with creative ideas and together with partners from all over Europe.
• Innovation and joint creations: innovation, in a broad sense, is necessary for the evolution of the cultural and creative sectors and their competiveness. Innovations can be of technological and artistic nature; they may include the joint creation and production of innovative European works and their dissemination to a wide and diverse audience. Innovations also include the development and experimentation of new practices or models, as well as the transfer and dissemination of innovative practices from more advanced European regions or sectors to other regions in Europe or disciplines. Areas of innovation can encompass a social or societal dimension such as audience engagement/development, gender equality or the inclusion of people with disabilities, people belonging to minorities and people belonging to socially marginalised groups, fighting climate change, digitisation, etc.;
• Cooperation and exchanges of practices: the Programme will give organisations of all sizes the possibility to cooperate and learn at cross-border level. The cooperation between organisations active in cultural and creative sectors will contribute to: building the capacities of the organisations involved; giving rise to many artistic creations; helping the circulation and dissemination of artists and works; increasing the initiatives that allow more people to participate in cultural activities and projects;
• Capacity-building of artists: the Programme will help European artists and cultural and creative professionals move up to the European level by supporting (emerging) talents, skills development, innovation and the transnational creation and circulation of European works. Creative Europe will support platforms which increase the visibility and the circulation of European emerging artists and works in Europe and beyond. It will also support actions that promote the circulation of European literary works, thus allowing groupings of publishers and/or other partners from the book sector (booksellers, libraries, etc.) to foster cooperation between publishers and their partners and bring more impact on the local and national book ecosystem;
• Key players and multipliers: the Programme will invest in activities that encourage the scaling up of Europe’s cultural and creative sectors at European and global levels, for instance by supporting their international presence, marketing and branding. It will support Europe-wide or international networks of organisations and individual artists that help developing creative capacities of artists and industry professionals; collect and disseminate data, information, practices, ideas and solutions; provide training and advices to professionals; represent the sectors at national and European level and advocate on their behalf on key sectoral issues.

From an operational point of view, the Programme will reinforce its sectoral approach: this is a new feature of the CULTURE strand of the Programme. Through this new approach, it will be possible to define more targeted annual sector-specific priorities for music, publishing, cultural heritage and architecture.

Furthermore, the Programme will continue the cooperation with international organisations active in the field of culture that bring added value to the achievement of the Programme's objectives, bringing in competence in specific areas to maximize the impact of the Programme's action.

Special actions

In 2021, the CULTURE strand of Creative Europe will continue to support the organisation of four yearly European prizes in the areas of music, literature, architecture and cultural heritage. The winners of the prizes will be from countries participating to the Creative Europe Programme.

European Capitals of Culture remain a flagship EU action with a positive effect on local economies and societies. Building on the exceptional cultural richness and great diversity of Europe and its cities and regions, this action aims in particular at increasing citizens' sense of belonging to a common cultural area and at fostering the contribution of culture to the long-term development of cities.

The European Heritage Label remains one of the most valuable EU initiatives to strengthen the European citizens’ sense of belonging to the Union, the focus on the European dimension of cultural heritage sites and the common values they represent being a distinctive feature of the action.

In 2021, the Programme foresees to initiate a special action supporting European cultural entities such as orchestras that aim at training and promoting young, high potential artists and have an inclusive approach with a large geographical coverage. This support shall complement horizontal and sectorial actions in particular in favour of entities whose specific added value lies in the special selection process of such artists and the encompassing training and performance opportunities offered to them.

The following entities are eligible to participate in the Programme if they are active in cultural and creative sectors:

• legal entities established in:
  • a EU Member State or an overseas country or territory linked to that Member State;
  • a third country associated to the Programme; or
  • a third country listed in the work programme;
• legal entities created under Union law;
• international organisations.

Legal entities active in the cultural and creative sectors established in a third country which is not associated to the Programme shall exceptionally be eligible to participate in the Programme where such participation is necessary for the achievement of the objectives of a given action.

Legal entities active in the cultural and creative sectors established in a third country which is not associated to the Programme shall in principle bear the cost of their participation. Where it is in the Union’s interest, additional contributions from the external financing instrumeents may cover the costs of the participation of such legal entities.