Ewa Krakowska
We are all aware that European culture is unique, diverse and therefore in times of globalization it needs to be protected and developed on its own way. Creative Europe is a special cultural programme that cannot be missed by aspiring artists and cultural organizations on our continent. The European Commission took necessary steps in order to provide framework programme for support to the culture and media sectors in the period from 2014 till 2020.
If you are an author, filmmaker, actor/actress, musician or involved in any other kind of artistic activity, you can count on EU assistance for your projects. What type of help? There are many options like: working with partners in other countries, training (for example to switch to digital technologies) or audience development (share works across borders). In detail, thousands of creative organisations and audiovisual professionals will acquire new skills and strengthen their capacity to operate internationally. Publishers will benefit from funding to translate than 4,500 literary works.
Other things like giving prestigious awards to promote best creative talents in architecture, music, culture heritage, literature and filmmaking are also impotrant supporting tools. Every year there are chosen two cities to be titled „European Capital of Culture”. It is certainly a great motivation to increase artistic liveliness of many places.
All of this will be financed with a budget of €1.46 billion. Also the procedure to get money was simplified comparing to previous agenda. Of course, the best thing is that it does not matter how big the organization or project are- there is no possibility of discrimination. Androulla Vassiliou, former European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth said that –
„The cultural and creative sectors have great potential to boost jobs and growth in Europe. EU funding helps thousands of artists and cultural professionals to work across borders and reach new audiences. Without this support, it would be difficult or impossible for them to break into new markets”.
Lastly, it is worth to mention that non- EU countries may also obtain the Creative Europe grants. For example eligible to apply in the Culture sub- programme are Iceland, Norway, Albania, Montenegro and Georgia.
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