What changed between the draft committee report and the plenary report

Changed:A network of Creative Europe desks act as advisory bodies. Their mission is to promote the programme, provide information and guidance to potential applicants as well as to foster cross-border cooperation and ensure proper dissemination of funding awarded and results obtained in each of the respective countries. So far, 40 desks have been established and, from June 2023, the programme fully finances the Creative Europe Desk in Ukraine.

Changed:In drafting the current report, the Rapporteur availed of the findings from meetings with DG EAC and DG CNECT, as well as wide consultations and meetings with stakeholders and national desks. Information gathered from a Shadow Rapporteurs’ meeting with stakeholders was also taken into account. Following the meeting, 20 written submissions were receivedreceived, includingwhich included several submissions from stakeholders who were unable to attend the meeting with the Shadow Rapporteurs.

Changed: A European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS) study published in July 2023, titled “The early implementation of the 2021-2027 EU programmes Erasmus +, Creative Europe, European Solidarity Corps and Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values (Strand 3)”; and

Changed:AsSimilar to the previous generation of the programme, Creative Europe has two general objectives. On the one hand, it aims to safeguard and promote the richness and diversity of Europe’s cultural and linguistic heritage and, on the other, the programme aims at boosting the economic potential of the cultural and creative sectors. These two general objectives are complemented by three specific objectives, which apply to the three strands.

Changed:Environmental sustainability remains one of the priorities of the programme and is referenced in all of its calls; the programme does not, however, directly support climate mitigation measures. Almost all proposals submitted within the Media strand are requested to provide a strategy to improve the greening of the industry (except for three actions where this is not applicable). In 2022, a focus on greening was proposed in the Talent & Skills action, in order to improve greening skills within the audiovisual industry. The relevance and quality of these strategies were then assessed in the award criteria. ProjectsIn addition, projects that encourage the sectors to adopt more environmentally friendly practices and business-models are supported by the Culture strand as well,strand, in particular under the European cooperation projects and the networks, where sustainability is one of the priorities that can be selected by applicants.

Changed:The evaluations carried out in 2021-2022 show that nearly all applicants have taken advantage of the opportunity to start incorporating cross-cutting priorities ininto their projects. At present, the structure of the calls allowallows for flexibility so that the project beneficiaries can decide on how to integrate these new priorities into their projects. Several stakeholders, however, recommend that the programme would function better if the beneficiaries were allowed to focus on one inclusion measure as a priority, rather than spending resources on incorporating all priorities, which may be less efficient and unproductive.

Changed:The Culture strand has been strengthened by increasing the budget for the platform scheme,scheme and by introducing grants to cultural entities along with a new scheme for artists, creators and culture professionals to facilitate their transnational mobility. The latter was tested under the previous programme via the I-Portunus pilot project, which allowed for thea host of artists, who may not have the means to attract international talent, to be part of the mobility scheme. The mobility action, fully implemented in 2023, supports “artists in residence” activities and other types of place-bound cultural activities organised forfor, and withwith, the local communities. Another new feature of this strand is the sectoral and targeted approachapproach, complementingwhich complements the horizontal instruments with annual actions focusing on sector-specific needs in music, books, architecture, cultural heritage, design, fashion and cultural tourism. This strand also supports the European Heritage Label and a series of awards in the relevant sectors.The Cooperation projects scheme remains a cornerstone of the Culture strand, albeit with some relevant new features. These include calls for three different project sizes (small, medium and large) and an increase in co-financing rates, especially for small-sized projects.

Changed:The Media strand has been bolstered by structuring the priorities of the new programme around four different clusters (content, business, audience and policy support) with a view to ensureensuring a broader flexibility in the supported actions, as well as encouraging cooperation along the audiovisual value-chain. The Media strand further enhances its European added-value by broadening the participation of countries with different audio-visual capacities, in addition to fostering cross-border collaboration. In this regard, in 2021, the programme implemented targeted measures to ensure a more level playing field across seven relevant schemes. This strand features three other main novelties. The first is a new specific action, launched in 2022, to support video games and immersive content development. The second is the kick-off of MediaInvest, as foreseen under the MAAP, which is a European equity platform aimed at boosting investments in audiovisual production and distribution. The main aim of this action is to mobilise private investment within the European audiovisual industry, which has been kick started by blending resources from both InvestEU programme and the Media strand of the Creative Europe programme. The third, a new form of funding, is the action Media360˚, which aims at boosting cooperation and synergies amongst existing ecosystems to create an impact across the value-chain.

Changed:Another element that can, in its own way, be an unintended novelty for the 2021-2027 programme is Brexit. The new programme has been implemented without the United Kingdom as an EU Member State. Consequently, the country is eligible to participate as a Third country. The UK has, however,has taken the decisiondecision, however, not to participate with the current programme, resulting in the closure of the UK Creative Europe desk. In 2014-2019, the UK’s participation meant a combined total support of €100 million (EUR 72 million under the Media strand and EUR 27 million under the Culture strand). During that time, 609 projects, involving UK beneficiaries, received around EUR 68 million.

Changed:Participation in the programme is open to Member States as well as several Thirdthird countries. The latter includes those of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), which are part of the European Economic Area (EEA), acceding countries, candidate countriescountries, andincluding potential candidates, and the European Neighbourhood Policy countries. The intention is that these third countries will become full participants in the programme in the future. As foreseen by article 9 of the Regulation, however, the participation in the Media and Cross-sectoral strands is conditional on specific requirements or a duly justified derogation.

Changed:The year-by-year spread of the seven-year budget was front-loaded, with a third of the Creative Europe financial envelope being committed during the first two years of the programme, the highest so far. The 2022 annual work programme was adopted in January 20212022 with a total budget of around EUR 400 million. In 2022, the programme benefited from an overall increase close to EUR 100 millionmillion, representing a budget increase of 33% compared to the previous year. In 2022, the Agency implemented approximately 90% of the budget, while about 10% was implemented in a centralised manner.

Changed:From the total number of calls published, the number of those promoting lump-sum types of action compared to project grants is quite high. This trend is even more evident in 2022 when from the total amount of calls published, 58.7% opted for the lump-sum formula. This data indicates that the programme is gradually evolving and is striving to introduce more simplificationsimplified and streamlined procedures. Stakeholders highlighted the introduction of lump-sum funding as being a major advantage, as it eases the administrative burden both in terms of the application and implementation phases. Despite the efforts made in terms of simplifying and streamlining processes, however, several beneficiaries made complaints regarding the renewed application and monitoring procedures, which partially fail to meet the objective of facilitating participation. This is especially relevant to the smaller entities that have limited financial and human resources. Many havealso asked for the new e-Grant system to be further tested for user-friendliness and technical issues. This situation also affects the Creative Europe desks, which have reported an increase in requests to find solutions forto the problems encountered by the applicants with the digital platform.

Changed:The calls published under the Culture strand attracted 1,4751 475 applications in total requesting a totalan budgetamount of EUR 875 million for all actions. The most competitive scheme of the strand is the European cooperation projects, which received the highest budget ever for their implementation. This is reflected in the total number of applications in that year, which increased by 45% over 2021 (169 projects selected from 682 applications giving an overall success rate of 26%). Overall, within the two years, 291 cooperation projects were supported under this scheme, with a stable number of large-scale cooperation projects being supported, whilst the number of small-scaled ones also increased substantially.

Changed:Under the literary translation action, 90 projects were supported in 2021 and 2022 (each year around 40 projects were selected initially and an additional five were added from the reserve list). These projects resulted in the translation of 1,0241 024 books written by 815 authors and translated by 651 translators. The books originated from 40 different languages and were translated into 26 target languages.

Changed: The individual mobility scheme (for individuals and groups of up to five persons). Following five monthly evaluations, 4,6654 665 applications were submitted representing a total of 7,6897 689 individuals. Grants of EUR 3.6 million were awarded to 1,8021 802 artists and cultural professionals.

Changed: The residency action, which is aimed at organisations and established individual artists who regularly organise residencies and are interested in hosting artists and cultural professionalsprofessionals. (TheThe deadline for the first call’scall deadlineof this action was in June 2023).2023.

Changed:The calls published under the Media strand attracted 2,1242 124 applicants in total, 929 in 2021 and 11951 195 in 2022. Among these applicants, 63% were successful in securing funding in 2021 and 69% in 2022. The large number of applicants in the first two years demonstrates the strong interest of the European audiovisual sector in the programme. Despite the decrease in the success rate in 2021, the Media strand continues to play a key role in fostering growth and resilience offor the sector. The Media actions that financed the highest number of grants in 2021 and 2022 are: Film Distribution (482 grants), Development Slate (166 grants), Co-development (117 grants) and European Festivals (92 grants).

Changed:The calls published under the Cross-sectoral strand attracted around 243 applicants, requesting fundinga total amount of EUR 210 million. The first call for Media Literacy was launched in 2022, resulting in six grants being awarded and one being denied due to an insufficient budget. Also under this strand, two grants were awarded under the call for Defending Media Freedom and Pluralism. The Journalism partnerships’ calls have seen a considerable increase in the number of projects being submitted, ranging from 30 in 2021 to 54 in 2022. The success rate of most calls under this strand were, however, quite low with only 23% of applicants receiving a grant in 2021 and 24% recipients in 2022.

Changed:In 2021 and 2022, the programme supported a total 1,9091 909 projects (1,422(1 422 under Media, 441 under Culture and 46 Cross-sectoral). In both years, the programme provided grants to around 3,8603 860 organisations (2,146(2 146 under Culture, 1,4521 452 under Media and 262 under Cross-sectoral);Cross-sectoral). dataThe providedavailable data reveals that 73% of the beneficiaries under Culture were small-sized organisations. Despite the positive data, stakeholders underlined challenges relating to the uptake and participation of smaller organisations in the programme.

Changed:The main EU challenges also relevant forto the cultural, creative and audiovisual sectors are digital transformation, green transition, the long-term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, geopolitical instability caused by the Russian aggression against UkraineUkraine, and the EU strategic autonomy.

Changed:The Creative Europe programme addresses all the afore-mentioned challenges, albeit differently. The Regulation hasmakes a strong reference to the digital transformation and the post-pandemic recoveryrecovery, whilst the green transition and the EU strategic autonomy are tackled to a much lesser extent.

Changed:The Regulation does not refer to the Russian aggression as the Regulation was already in force when Russia launched its full-scale invasion against Ukraine in February 2022; this also applies to the work programmes of 2021 and 2022. Nevertheless, the programme has shown a great level of flexibility and resilience in responding to urgent needs arising from both the pandemic and the Russian aggression against Ukraine. The effects of the Russo-UkrainianRussian warinvasion wereof Ukraine are included as one of the programme’s key challenges to the work programme 2023. A targeted call of EUR 5 million to support the Ukrainian artists and cultural sectors was launched in November 2022, under the Culture strand. The three projects selected, involving 16 European and Ukrainian organisations, offer flexible funding mechanisms and capacity building in three areas: support to artists and cultural organisations, integration of displaced Ukrainian artists through the arts, and the reconstruction of cultural heritage.

Changed:The Rapporteur welcomes the reactivity of the programme to unforeseen challenges and its ability to adjust when required. In this regard, the budget increase and higher co-financing rates have been positively received by the stakeholders, as has the extension of deadlines for many calls and related flexibilityflexibilities showedshown by both the Commission and EACEA to beneficiaries. The Rapporteur, however, regrets that the substantial budget increase will be partially absorbed by high inflation, which may require further adjustments in the remaining years of this MFF cycle. The newly adopted simplification measures appear to have had positive effects so far and they should be further developed.

Changed:The Rapporteur believes that is keyessential to have early and reliable timetabling of calls for proposals in the near future, thus allowing candidates to have more time to plan in advance. Furthermore, improvements to the IT tools deployed for the Creative Europe programme must be implemented; in particular, the IT tools must suit the diverse types of organisations applying to the programme.

Changed:Lastly, the Rapporteur considers the mainstreaming of the cross-cutting priorities across the three strands as a positive development. Considering, however,Considering the relatively recent start of the programme, along with the complexity entailed in assessing the societal impact of projects, the Rapporteur recommendsrecommends, however, a more in-depth monitoring and assessment of this new feature. This will provide a better understanding of how the programme functions in relation to this specific aspect.

Removed:A. whereas the data gathered confirms the considerable interest of the cultural and creative sectors in the programme; whereas higher co-financing rates for different actions under the Culture and Media strands have proven beneficial in supporting the cultural and creative ecosystems, especially in the aftermath of the pandemic;

Removed:B. whereas the Creative Europe programme 2021-2027 features an overall budget increase of about 68 % compared to its predecessor; whereas the overall budget has been frontloaded with a third of the financial envelope committed in the years 2021 and 2022 to address, inter alia, the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic;

Added:A. whereas the data gathered confirms the considerable interest of the cultural and creative sectors in the programme; whereas higher co-financing rates for different actions under the Culture and Media strands have proven beneficial in supporting the cultural and creative ecosystems and have provided better opportunities for small-scale projects too, especially in the aftermath of the pandemic;

Removed:C. whereas one of the main novelties of the programme is that it mainstreams the cross-cutting priorities of inclusion and diversity, in particular gender balance, and greening;

Added:L. whereas the ‘Writing European’ preparatory action, supported as of 2021, has been developed with the aim of supporting creators, in particular authors, in conceiving and developing high quality fiction series able to travel across borders and reach new audiences;

Added:O. whereas Culture Moves Europe is the largest EU mobility scheme for the cultural and creative sectors and had attracted around 4 660 application by mid-2023; whereas approximately 85 % of applications are from sectors such as the visual arts, performing arts and music;

Added:P. whereas the programme acknowledges the importance of the music sector as an essential component of Europe’s cultural diversity, which can benefit from the horizontal approach under the Culture strand; whereas during the 2021-2022 period the Music Moves Europe Initiative allocated EUR 5 million to strengthening the competitiveness, innovation and diversity of Europe’s music sector;

Added:Q. whereas the Literary Translation Action plays a unique role in promoting authors across borders, reaching new audiences and contributing to a more culturally and linguistically diverse Europe;

Removed:1. Highlights that the new generation of the Creative Europe programme continues to generate significant interest within the cultural, creative and audiovisual sectors, with an increasing number of applications received under the three strands, resulting in a proportionate decrease in the success rate of applications;

Added:T. whereas, in light of the crucial role of the Creative Europe desks in promoting and informing the cultural and creative sectors about all aspects of the programme, cooperation and exchanges between the Commission - including the EACEA - and the Creative Europe desks must be strengthened and encompass the sharing of relevant information on upcoming calls for proposals;

Removed:2. Welcomes the programme’s response to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, which severely disrupted the cultural and creative sectors even prior to the commencement of the current programme;

Added:U. whereas the Creative Europe programme plays a strategic role in enhancing the external dimension of the European Union’s cultural relations by fostering partnerships between different actors from the cultural and creative sectors, availing of a people-to-people approach, in addition to promoting cultural diversity within Europe and beyond;

Added:13. Notes that some Member States do not provide national indemnity schemes or insurance cover to facilitate the mobility of cultural goods; acknowledges that commercial insurance costs can be significant for numerous cultural actors; suggests, in this regard, that the Commission publishes a feasibility study on a pan-European guarantee scheme to cover indemnity costs as a first step to address this issue;

Added:14. Urges the Commission to promote the human-centric and transparent use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the artistic and creative process by developing appropriate ethical standards relating to AI use; calls on the Commission, in this regard, to ensure that both applicants and beneficiaries provide information relating to the use of AI in projects, including in the production, distribution and promotion of creative works, in order to assess this emerging trend in the cultural and creative sectors and its impact on the programme;

Added:15. Stresses the significant potential of the Creative Europe programme in developing and enhancing transnational partnerships, thus also contributing to the EU’s international relations through culture;

Added:16. Calls on the Commission to invest appropriate resources on the external dimension of the programme and to encourage further cooperation between cultural institutes and organisations in Member States, as well as EU National Institutes for Culture (EUNIC) Clusters in third countries; calls on the Commission, furthermore, to support and facilitate the participation of third countries in the programme, where possible;

Changed:7.17. Highlights that the current Creative Europe programme, despite the significantly increased budget for the period 2021-2027, is still oversubscribed; calls on the Commission and the Member States, in this regard, to substantially increase the financial envelopeallocation of the Creative Europe programme 2028-2034;

Changed:9.19. Urges the Member States and the Commission, ingiven viewthe ofchallenges thearising from digitalisation and greening, as well as from high subscription rates, inrampant additioninflation toand rampantassociated inflation,high energy costs, which isare all severely affecting beneficiaries’ operational capacity, to ensure that there are no budget cuts to the programme’s envelopeallocation in the upcoming budgetarybudget years;

Added:20. Regrets that the Seal of Excellence label has not yet been implemented; calls on the Commission to roll out this label immediately, so that projects may avail of the opportunities offered by cumulative and alternative funding during this programming cycle;

Added:21. Deplores the fact that under the 2021-2027 multiannual financial framework (MFF) there is no flexibility for topping up the Creative Europe programme and underlines that this precludes the funding of new initiatives, valuable pilot projects and preparatory actions; recalls, in this regard, that pilot projects and preparatory actions are important tools for testing new initiatives that may develop into standing EU funding programmes or be subsumed into existing ones;

Added:22. Deplores the funding gap between the two MFF cycles, which particularly affected the network scheme and calls on the Commission to ensure that this does not recur in the future; calls on the Commission, in light of the key role of this scheme in supporting the cultural and creative sectors’ capacity to operate transnationally and internationally, to provide adequate funding and, in addition, to consider the introduction of operational grants for this action;

Changed:10.23. Welcomes the introduction of the sectoral approach as a new feature of the Culture strandstrand, complementingwhich thecomplements horizontal actions; calls for its enhancement through an adequate budget allocation toensuring caterthat forno thesector respectiveis needsleft ofbehind thoseand sectorsthere thatis mayno requirereduction ato morethe targetedallocation approach;for horizontal actions;

Removed:11. Recognises that the increased co-financing rates, especially for small-scale cooperation projects, are beneficial and facilitate the participation of small-sized organisations; in this regard, calls on the Commission and the EACEA to allow project consortiums to independently define how funding is distributed among their partners, as long as the overall co-funding rate applies at project level;

Added:24. Recalls the importance of further safeguarding and promoting freedom of artistic expression, in particular in the funding opportunities offered by the programme under the cultural cooperation projects action and the European networks scheme;

Removed:12. Acknowledges the high quality of applications received under the mobility scheme; in this regard, calls on the Commission to safeguard geographical balance in addition to increasing participation from countries that are underrepresented;

Added:25. Recognises that the increased co-financing rates, especially for small-scale cooperation projects, are beneficial and facilitate the participation of small organisations; calls on the Commission and the EACEA, in this regard, to allow project consortia to independently determine how funding is distributed among their partners provided the overall co-funding rate applies at project level;

Removed:16. Calls for a more strategic and sector-oriented approach for the music sector, building on the results of the Music Moves Europe preparatory action; in this regard, stresses the importance of a regular structured dialogue between the music sector and the Commission;

Added:31. Underlines the importance of the network scheme in providing networking and capacity-building opportunities, which strengthen the diversity and competitiveness of the European cultural and creative sectors; calls on the Commission, in this regard, to provide adequate funding for this action with a view to supporting current beneficiaries and new networks;

Removed:17. Emphasises the importance of the special action of the European Capital of Culture as a catalyst for the cultural and economic regeneration of cities; stresses the need for additional funding for this special action to meet the additional costs incurred as a result of the long-term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and rampant inflation; calls on the Commission, therefore, to increase the funding of the Melina Mercouri Prize, which has been endowed with EUR 1.5 million for several years;

Added:32. Underlines that the sectoral approach is an excellent tool that strengthens the book and publishing sector, enabling concerted actions that support and stimulate market access and the wider circulation of European works;

Changed:18.38. Acknowledges that the Media strand remains the main European instrument providing strategic support to the independent audiovisual sector, which consists primarily of small and medium-sized companies; highlights the significant international competition that European audiovisual, cinema and videogame sectors are facing and the crucial support this strand offers for recovery and transformation of these sectors and for increasing the EU’s strategic autonomy; stresses, in this regard, the importance of ensuring a an adequate budget allocation for the Media strand and insists on the need for comprehensive data for assessing and monitoring whether and how the programme effectively succeeds in increasing the economic and cultural potential of these sectors;

Removed:20. Underlines the vital roles of the European Film Distribution and European Film Sales support schemes in contributing to the cultural diversity of the European audiovisual sector by increasing the cross-border circulation of European films; stresses, therefore, that it is key to maintain adequate funding for both schemes;

Added:40. Highlights that a large number of high quality projects under the co-development and mini-slate schemes were rejected in 2021-2022 due to budgetary constraints; calls on the Commission, therefore, to allocate a larger budget for the future implementation of these schemes;

Removed:21. Stresses that the Creative Europe Regulation 2021-2027 advances the provision of support to networking activities for audiovisual professionals, including creators; points out that this action has not yet been implemented, calls on the Commission, therefore, to implement a dedicated action with the objective of supporting networking activities and cooperation within the audiovisual value chain in a timely manner;

Added:41. Underlines the vital roles of the European Film Distribution and European Film Sales support schemes in contributing to the cultural diversity of the European audiovisual sector by increasing the cross-border circulation of European films and offsetting some of the risks distributors take when investing in the production, distribution and promotion of non-national European films; stresses, therefore, that it is essential for funding for both schemes to be increased and for further efforts to be made to ensure the wider circulation and online availability of European works;

Added:47. Recognises the success of the Networks of European Festival call, which has supported 71 festivals in 12 networks, which cooperated to foster audience engagement, among other things; calls on the Commission, therefore, to continue funding the two complementary actions, the European Festivals and the Network of European Festivals, in alternate years;

Added:48. Notes that, as the Media Invest facility attracted a large number of applications, greater budgetary synergies with the InvestEU programme must be ensured for its future implementation; calls on the Commission to further improve the promotion of this facility in the audiovisual sector;

Added:49. Recalls that the Commission’s proposal for a European Media Freedom Act of September 2022 establishes a European Board for Media Services to replace the European Regulators Group for Audiovisual Media Services (ERGA) set up by Directive 2010/13/EU; stresses in light of the limited financial resources available for the implementation of the programme’s objectives that the budget allocated to the Media Strand and other programme budget lines must not be allocated for the financing of the Board;

Changed:25.51. Notes that the Journalism Partnerships and the Media Literacy calls attracted the highest number of applications in 2021-2022, underlining the urgent need for an increase in financial support for the European media sector;

Changed:26.52. Notes that the low success rate of applications under the Cross-sectoral strand, in spite of the overall high quality of the submissions, indicates a high demand for financial support which regrettably cannot be addressed by the current financial envelope;allocation;

Added:53. Calls on the Commission to ensure that in the remaining programming period no less than 9 % of the overall budget 2021-2027 is allocated to supporting the objectives of the Cross-sectoral strand;