Explanatory Memorandum to COM(2011)785 - Establishing the Creative Europe Programme - Main contents
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This page contains a limited version of this dossier in the EU Monitor.
| dossier | COM(2011)785 - Establishing the Creative Europe Programme. |
|---|---|
| source | COM(2011)785  |
| date | 23-11-2011 |
On 29 June 2011, the Commission adopted a proposal for the next multi-annual financial framework for the period 2014-2020 on a budget for delivering the Europe 2020 strategy. In its proposal, the Commission decided that support for the cultural and creative sectors (CCS) should remain an essential element of the next financial package and proposed a single 'Creative Europe' framework programme, bringing together the current Culture, MEDIA and MEDIA Mundus programmes, and including a new financial facility to improve access to finance for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SME) and organisations in the cultural and creative sectors.
This approach recognises the important contribution these sectors make to jobs and growth, representing 4.5% of total European GDP in 2008 and accounting for some 3.8% of the workforce. Beyond their direct contribution to GDP, they trigger spill-over in other sectors of the economy such as tourism and fuelling content for ICT. In a broader sense creativity will play an essential role in modern education. It will drive innovation, entrepreneurship, as well as smart and sustainable growth and contribute to social inclusion. Members States support numerous cultural initiatives many of which fall under state aid rules.
However despite witnessing higher than average growth rates in many countries in recent years, these sectors are facing various common challenges and difficulties, and there is a potential for further growth in the future if a coherent strategic approach is followed and the right enablers are put in place.
A Creative Europe framework programme will contribute to Europe 2020 objectives and some of its flagships by responding to challenges the cultural and creative sectors face in terms of fragmentation, globalisation and the digital shift, shortage of data and lack of private investment. It will seek to strengthen competitiveness in the cultural and creative sectors, by strongly focussing on capacity building measures and support for transnational circulation of cultural works. At the same time it will play a key role in respecting the European Union's legal obligations regarding the safeguarding and promotion of cultural and linguistic diversity.
The programme will be a simple, recognisable and easily accessible gateway for European cultural and creative professionals and it will offer scope for activities within and outside of the European Union (EU). A single framework programme will enable synergies and cross-fertilisation across the different cultural and creative sectors.
EU intervention in this area will aim to deliver systemic impact and to support policy development and will be of particular value for the following reasons:
– The transnational character of its activities and their impact which will complement national, international and other EU programmes;
– The economies of scale and critical mass which EU support can foster, creating a leverage effect on additional funds;
– Transnational cooperation which can stimulate more comprehensive, rapid and effective responses to global challenges and have long-term systemic effects on the sector;
– Ensuring a more level playing field in the European cultural and creative sectors by taking account of lower production capacity countries and/or countries or regions with a restricted geographical and linguistic area.
By specifically targeting the needs of the cultural and creative sectors aiming to operate beyond national borders, and with a strong link to the promotion of cultural and linguistic diversity, the programme will complement other EU programmes such as structural fund support for investment in the cultural and creative sectors, heritage restoration, cultural infrastructure and services, digitisation funds for cultural heritage and the external relations instruments. Furthermore, it will build on the experience and success of existing brands such as MEDIA and the European Capitals of Culture.
2. RESULTS OF CONSULTATIONS WITH THE INTERESTED PARTIES AND IMPACT ASSESSMENTS 2.1. Consultation and expert advice
A public consultation on the future of the Culture Programme took place between 15 September and 15 December 2010. A considerable number of organisations also sent in separate position papers. With almost 1,000 responses (589 from individuals, and 376 from organisations and public authorities), this represented a good sample for the future analysis. The online consultation asked a series of questions building on the findings of the interim evaluation. A summary of the results was published in June 2011. The online consultation was followed by a public consultation meeting on 16 February 2011 in Brussels, attended by more than 550 people, many on behalf of representative European cultural organisations.
In addition to the results of the public consultations, the Commission has taken account of the interim evaluation of the current programme carried out in 2010, feedback to the Commission's Green Paper 'Unlocking the potential of cultural and creative industries' (which received some 350 responses), findings of independent studies, as well as recommendations made by experts in the context of the culture open method of coordination (OMC) and structured dialogue with the sector over the period 2008-2010.
These various sources highlighted the many positive benefits of the Culture Programme, but also identified areas for improvement and simplification. One element which emerged in particular was the need to revise the objectives in the light of the Europe 2020 strategy and the Union's legal and moral obligations to foster the safeguarding and promoting of cultural and linguistic diversity. Furthermore, there was strong support for the role the programme can play in contributing to the strengthening of the cultural sector through professional development and capacity-building of artists/cultural operators in an international context, and promoting the trans-national circulation of cultural works and products, including the mobility of artists, performers and cultural professionals. Priorities of a more social nature were also endorsed, including widening access to culture and participation in culture of disadvantaged groups (social inclusion). Furthermore, problems of access to finance for cultural and creative SME have been repeatedly stressed.
The Commission undertook an online consultation on the future of the MEDIA 2007 Programme from September through November 2010. 2,586 respondents responded to the Commission’s public online consultation. They represent a wide range of stakeholders within the European audiovisual sector, from many Member States and other European countries. The online consultation revealed that the main priorities for the future programme as perceived by respondents are mainly: new technologies, gaps in training, fragmentation, support rules, media literacy, and quotas of European works.
A separate online consultation on the future of the MEDIA Mundus Programme took place from March to end of May 2011. The Commission received 367 replies from 51 countries. 86% of the replies were submitted by professionals from Member States. Stakeholders participating in the MEDIA Mundus consultation prioritised actions to facilitate co-productions, i.e. the support of co–production markets and international co-production funds. Continuous training also received particularly high support from stakeholders.
A public hearing on MEDIA and MEDIA Mundus took place on 18 March 2011 in Brussels[7]. gathering together approximately 250 stakeholders such as filmmakers, producers, distributors, film directors, exhibitors, film funds etc., to present their views and debate on the future of the programmes. A further 900 people followed via streamed transmission. The main outcomes of this hearing were the following: In its 20 years of existence MEDIA helped to significantly change the European audiovisual landscape; most European films would not be seen outside their home territories without MEDIA support; the European animation industries now play a very important role on the world markets and MEDIA has a major impact on the development of European co-productions. However, the sector is now facing important challenges and opportunities from digitisation and globalisation and support will be needed to enable the sector to develop new business models and to benefit from the changing market conditions. It will be very important to support projects acting across the value chain and to focus more on audience building, branding and film literacy.
The Commission has also conducted a series of audiovisual stakeholder focus groups to further explore attitudes toward the programme and has organised conferences and meetings with various stakeholders in the context of the Rotterdam, Berlin and Cannes Film festivals 2011.
A number of additional focused consultations took place with respect to the identified problem of access to financing involving numerous groups of diverse stakeholders from the audiovisual, music, publishing and videogame sectors. These consultations also involved the EIB Group (European Investment Bank and European Investment Fund), and financial institutions. On 3 May 2011 a seminar was organised by the Commission on 'Facilitating access to funding for cultural and creative SME', bringing together representatives from European financial institutions involved in funding for SME operating in the cultural and creative sectors, companies from these sectors and experts who have been working on the topic of access to finance in this area.
The feedback to all these consultations was thoroughly considered by the Commission and used in the preparation of both the impact assessment reports and the future programme design.
Three impact assessments have contributed to this proposal, namely one on the continuation of the current Culture programme, a joint impact assessment on the current MEDIA and MEDIA Mundus programmes, and a separate impact assessment on the creation of a financial facility for the cultural and creative sectors.
The impact assessments for Culture and MEDIA identify four common problems facing the cultural and creative sectors which will need to be addressed at EU level in order to reach the desired impacts. The first is the fragmented market context stemming from Europe's cultural and linguistic diversity, which results in these sectors being essentially fragmented along national and linguistic lines and lacking critical mass. At present this leads to sub-optimal transnational circulation of works and mobility of artists and professionals, as well as geographical imbalances. It also limits consumer choice and access to European cultural works. The second is the need for the sectors to adapt to the impact of globalisation and the digital shift. Globalisation has a tendency to increase the concentration of supply among a limited number of major players, posing a threat to cultural and linguistic diversity. The digital shift is having a massive impact on how cultural goods are made, managed, disseminated, accessed, consumed and monetised, presenting both opportunities and challenges, and the sector would benefit from transnational approaches and solutions. The third is the shortage of comparable data on the cultural sector at European and national levels. This has consequences for European policy coordination, which can be a useful driver for national policy developments and systemic change at low cost for the EU budget and in full respect of the principle of subsidiarity. The fourth is the difficulties faced by cultural and creative SME in accessing finance. This is due to the intangible nature of many of their assets, such as copyright, which are usually not reflected in accounts (unlike patents). It is also due to the fact that unlike other industrial projects, cultural works are generally not mass-produced, with every book, opera, theatre play, film and videogame being a unique prototype and companies tending to be project-based.
After assessing several options, both conclude that a merger of Culture, MEDIA, MEDIA Mundus and a new financial facility within a single framework programme would have advantages compared to all other options considered in terms of achieving the necessary objectives, efficiency, cost-effectiveness (result per Euro spent), and coherence.
Contents
The Programme will be based on Articles 166, 167 and 173 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU). Article 166 is the base for EU actions in the field of vocational training. Article 167 specifies the EU's competences in the cultural field and calls for action by the European Union to contribute to the flowering of the cultures of the Member States, while respecting their national and regional diversity and at the same time bringing the common cultural heritage to the fore and, if necessary, to support and supplement Member State action in the area listed by this provision. Article 173 TFEU states that the Union and the Member States shall ensure that the conditions necessary for the competitiveness of the Union's industry exist, including taking action to encourage an environment favourable to initiative and to the development of undertakings.
Furthermore, Article 3 of the Treaty on European Union recognises that the internal market and economic growth must be accompanied by respect for the EU's cultural and linguistic diversity. The EU Charter for Fundamental Rights (Article 22) states that the Union shall respect cultural and linguistic diversity. Finally, the Union's mandate is recognised in international law, in the UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, which is part of the acquis communautaire.
The overall budget for the actions (2014-2020) amounts to €1.801 billion (current prices).
The proposed programme consists of a framework with three strands:
– A Cross-sectoral Strand addressed to all cultural and creative sectors including a financial facility and support for transnational policy cooperation and innovative cross-sectoral actions;
– A Culture Strand addressed to the cultural and creative sectors;
– A MEDIA Strand addressed to the audiovisual sector.
The indicative budgetary allocation will be 15 % for the Cross-sectoral Strand, 30 % for the Culture Strand and 55% for the MEDIA Strand.
Its general objectives will be (i) to safeguard and promote the European cultural and linguistic diversity and (ii) to strengthen the competitiveness of the sector; thereby it will contribute to the EU 2020 strategy and its flagship initiatives.
The specific objectives are as follows:
– support the capacity of the European cultural and creative sectors to operate transnationally including by strengthening the relations and networks between operators;
– promote the transnational circulation of cultural and creative works and operators and reach new audiences in Europe and beyond;
– strengthen the financial capacity of the cultural and creative sectors;
– support transnational policy cooperation in order to foster policy development, innovation, audience building and new business models.
Each strand will specify its own priorities and measures, and will prioritise projects with a systemic effect on the sectors for example through support for new business models, network building and exchange of know-how in particular on the digital shift and globalisation of these sectors. Another important and new objective will be raising interest in European works through the support of audience building activities.
The international dimension of Creative Europe will be integrated through the following measures:
– possibility for participation of acceding countries, candidate countries and potential candidates benefiting from a pre-accession strategy, EEA, countries of the European neighbourhood area and Switzerland;
– possibility for bilateral cooperation with other third countries and international organisations;
– specific actions targeted at international professionals (integration of MEDIA Mundus).
A considerable number of simplifications were already introduced for the management of the current Culture and MEDIA programmes. However further improvements will be introduced in Creative Europe.
Greater use will be made in general of flat rates, more grant decisions and framework partnership agreements, electronic application and reporting for all actions, and an electronic portal to reduce paperwork for applicants and beneficiaries.
The number of instruments and calls for proposals managed by the Executive Agency for Education, Audiovisual and Culture (EACEA) under the Culture Strand will be simplified by reducing them from 9 to 4 main categories. Operating grants, which have been confusing for applicants and beneficiaries, will be discontinued in favour of project grants.
The financial facility will lead to improved use of EU funds through the financial leverage it will generate and its re-use of revolving funds, which will offer the Commission greater efficiency than traditional grants to beneficiaries.
Another significant simplification measure will be the merging of the two information networks to reap economies of scale, greater transparency for the public by having only one EU entry point, the Creative Europe desks.
The establishment of a single Programme Committee would also contribute to a more cost-effective and lean management of the programme, not only via savings in implementation costs but also through more effectiveness resulting from stronger synergies among relevant policies and sectors.