Brussels, 10 November 2020,

Earlier today, EU institutions reached a preliminary political agreement on the future EU budget 2021-2027, ending months of deadlock. 

If confirmed, the agreement represents very welcome news for the cultural sector, as Creative Europe – the only EU programme fully dedicated to culture – would see its budget increase to €2.2bn, up from the current €1.46bn for the 2014-2020 programme.   

The music sector has a keen interest in a strong Creative Europe programme as a new sectorial action for music is being introduced from 2021. This is a great opportunity to build on the work done with Music Moves Europe and allow the sector to be better represented in Creative Europe.  

Two other EU programmes of direct significance to the cultural sector will also see their budget increase following today’s agreement – InvestEU (+€1bn) and Horizon Europe (+€4bn).  

Continuing the work started with the EU’s Cultural and Creative Sector Guarantee Facility, a loan guarantee instrument in high demand from the sector, InvestEU is meant to continue facilitating access to finance for cultural and creative businesses.  

Horizon Europe is the EU’s innovation and research programme, and starting from 2021 it will for the first time have a cluster dedicated to culture and creativity.  

IMPALA’s Executive Chair Helen Smith commented: “Today’s agreement is great news for the cultural sector, and in our case for music. Thanks go in particular to the European Parliament and its negotiating team, who have fought relentlessly for the EU’s culture budget to be increased”.  

Helen Smith continued: “This much-needed increase to the budgets of Creative Europe, InvestEU and Horizon Europe is very timely and underlines the importance of culture strategically. We also fully support the European Parliament’s repeated calls for at least 2% of the €650bn Recovery and Resilience Facility to be earmarked for the cultural and creative sector.”