Open letter from the cultural & creative sectors

Today, together with the strength of 66 other cultural and creative European organizations, Liveurope signed an open letter to the European institutions with the intent to call upon them to give a significant boost to the budget for the cultural industries. 

The Europen Commission is in preparation for the announcement of their next long term budget for the European Union. This proposal is planned to be released beginning of May this year, and in light of that, the cultural and creative sectors have joined forces and call upon the officials to take into consideration our sectors' immense contribution to Europe's economy, and thus increase the culture budget overall. 

Europe's creativity is of immense importance to the identity of its citizens. The cultural and creative sectors in the European Union provide more than 12 million full-time jobs (7.5% of EU's work force), and create approximately €509bn in value added to GDP (5.3 % of the EU’s total GVA). In contrast, the Creative Europe programme, which is dedicated to supporting the cultural and creative industries in Europe represents only 0.15% of the entire EU budget with an allocation of €1,4b. 

In the letter, we stress again that in the coming budget, the role of our industries should not be overlooked. Europe's modern cultural significance is perhaps the most progressive in the world. European citizens will continue creating and continue enabling the exchange of culture and prosperity of economy. Our strenghts lie in Europe's diversity of people and quality of their arts, and the creative and cultural sectors must be recognized as pivotal in the landscape of European Union's agenda.

Read the full letter here on the website of Impala.