COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT pursuant to Article 294(6) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union concerning the position of the Council on the adoption of a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing the Creative Europe programme (2021 to 2027) and repealing Regulation (EU) No 1295/2013
Date: 2021-04-16
Institutions: Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture, European Commission
Subjects: EU programme, artistic creation, arts, audiovisual industry, audiovisual production, cultural cooperation, cultural pluralism, cultural promotion, culture industry, language policy

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   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 16.4.2021  COM(2021) 184 final 2018/0190 (COD)  COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT  pursuant to Article 294(6) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union  concerning the position of the Council on the adoption of a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing the Creative Europe programme (2021 to 2027) and repealing Regulation (EU) No 1295/2013    (Text with EEA relevance)  
 
2018/0190 (COD) 

COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION 
TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT 

pursuant to Article 294(6) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union 

concerning the 

position of the Council on the adoption of a Regulation of the European Parliament and 
of the Council establishing the Creative Europe programme (2021 to 2027) and 
repealing Regulation (EU) No 1295/2013    

(Text with EEA relevance) 

1. 

BACKGROUND 

Date of transmission of the proposal to the European Parliament and 
to the Council (document COM(2018)0366) 

30 May 2018 

Date the Committee of the Regions adopted its Opinion on the 
proposal 

6 February 2019 

Date  the  European  Economic  and  Social  Committee  adopted  its 
Opinion on the proposal 

12 December 2018 

Date of the position of the European Parliament, first reading: 

28 March 2019 

Date of Council agreement on a general approach 

14 December 2018 

Dates of the trilogues 

Date  Committee  of  Permanent  Representatives  confirmed  the 
compromise agreement 

9 October 2019 

26 November 2019 

12 December 2019 

14 December 2020 

18 December 2020 

Date    the  CULT  Committee  of  the  European  Parliament  voted  to 
endorse the compromise agreement  

11 January 2021 

Date Committee of Permanent Representatives adopted the Position 
of the Council (I/A Item)  

31 March 2021 

Date of adoption of the Council first reading position 

13 April 2021 

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2. 

OBJECTIVE OF THE PROPOSAL FROM THE COMMISSION 

The programme is one of the funding instruments under the 2021-2027 Multiannual Financial 
Framework.  The  Commission  proposed  an  overall  budget  of  EUR  1.85  billion  for  Creative 
Europe. 

The new Creative Europe programme, supporting the cultural and creative sectors, including 
audiovisual,  builds  on  the  achievements  of  the  current  programme,  while  being  more 
ambitious and trying to respond to recent developments, such as increased global competition 
and digitisation. It is composed of the CULTURE, MEDIA and CROSS-SECTORAL strands. 
It  offers  opportunities  for  cultural  and  creative  operators  to  develop  technologically  and 
artistically  innovative  European  trans-border  initiatives,  with  a  view  to  exchanging,  co-
creating, co-producing and distributing European works and making them accessible to wide 
and  diverse  audiences.  It  will  also  intensify  the  testing  of  new  business  models  enabling 
creators  for  example  to  make  best  use  of  digital  technologies  for  creation  and  audience 
development.  Furthermore, the new programme  will support actions aiming  at  reinforcing a 
free,  diverse  and  pluralistic  media  environment  in  Europe,  as  well  as  critical  approaches  to 
media content through fostering media literacy. 

3. 

COMMENTS ON THE POSITION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT 

The  European  Parliament’s  first  reading  position,  adopted  on  28  March  2019,  suggested 
amendments to the Commission proposal, notably: 

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Budget:  doubling  of  the  budget  (expressed  in  constant  prices)  and  percentage 
breakdown between strands (CULTURE, MEDIA, CROSS-SECTORAL); 

European Film Academy: designated beneficiary in the context of the promotion of 
the European Parliament’s LUX Prize;  

European Union Youth  Orchestra:  enumeration  of the  activities of the Orchestra to 
be funded as a designated beneficiary; 

Delegated acts for the adoption of annual work programmes; 

More implementation details on synergies with other programmes; 

Intrinsic value of culture as a new general objective; 

New  specific  objectives:  mobility  of  artists  and  circulation  of  works,  provision  of 
data, analyses and indicators, audience development and gender equality; 

Changes to the monitoring and evaluation framework; 

Use of programme logos; 

Data gathering for cultural and creative sectors; 

Focus on inclusion across the programme’s actions; 

Actions aimed at supporting low-capacity countries in the MEDIA strand.  

As part of the agreement reached in the trilogues, the Commission accepted: 

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A financial envelope of the programme set at  € 1 842 000 000 in current prices and 
an  additional  allocation  of  € 600 000 000  in  2018  prices,  resulting  from  the 
programme-specific adjustment provided for in Article 5 and Annex II of the Council 
Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2020/2093 (i.e. MFF regulation);  

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A breakdown of the budget in percentages between the programme strands; 

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A stronger link between the European Film Academy and the European Parliament’s 
LUX Prize, without having the European Film Academy as a designated beneficiary;  

The possibility for the European Union Youth Orchestra to participate in competitive 
calls for proposals without having it as a designated beneficiary; 

The continuation of the MEDIA logo;  

An article on data gathering;  

The recognition of the intrinsic and economic value of culture;  

A more clearly defined list of programme actions in the Annex;  

The  introduction  of  inclusion  and  gender  equality  as  transversal  principles  in  the 
implementation of the programme; 

A clearer acknowledgement of the differences across countries regarding audiovisual 
content  production,  distribution  and  access,  and  their  linguistic  and  geographical 
specificities.  

The  Commission  also  agreed  to  issue  the  following  letter  of  intent  regarding  the  European 
Union Youth Orchestra: 

“In the context of recital 23 and Annex I, Article 1, special actions e) as well as Article 7(5) of 
the  above  mentioned  Regulation,  as  agreed  by  co-legislators  on  14  December  2020,  the 
European  Commission  confirms  its  intention  to  launch  calls  for  proposals  inviting 
applications for multi-annual operating grants to which the European Union Youth Orchestra 
and  other  entities  could  apply  and  which  would  provide  the  necessary  stability  for  the 
functioning  of  these  entities’  need.  These  calls  will  be  subject  to  the  adoption  of  work 
programmes, which will set out exact conditions, such as the timing of calls or the duration of 
grant agreements foreseen. The Commission further confirms its intention to launch the first 
of such calls in the 2021 annual work programme. This intention is subject to the adoption of 
the above-mentioned regulation and final agreement on the Union budget for 2021.” 

Regarding  the  continuation  of  the  MEDIA  logo,  the  Commission  issued  the  following 
declaration: 

“The Commission  regrets that the co-legislators  decided to  maintain the  MEDIA logo. This 
runs  counter  to  the  horizontal  approach  of  not  having  programme-specific  logos  under  the 
future  long-term  budget.  The  Commission’s  intention  is  to  make  sure  that  Europeans  can 
relate to the Union as a whole thanks to the use of the single European emblem by its different 
programmes. This emblem is common to all EU Institutions and will be an important part of 
the  simple,  coherent  and  binding  communication  and  visibility  requirements  across 
programmes. For the sake of reaching overall agreement on the programme, the Commission 
can  accept  to  maintain  the  MEDIA  logo  under  the  condition  that  it  remains  limited  to  the 
duration of the concerned programming period. 

The Commission remains convinced that communication and visibility of EU action towards 
a  broad  public  is  more  effective  without  any  programme-specific  logos.  The  Commission 
remains at the co-legislators’ disposal to demonstrate this well ahead of the negotiations of the 
subsequent programming period”. 

Following  the  Council's  adoption  of  its  first  reading  position,  the  European  Parliament  is 
expected to formally endorse the agreement reached in the trilogues. 

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4. 

COMMENTS ON THE POSITION OF THE COUNCIL 

The  Council's  position  reflects  the  agreement  reached  in  the  trilogues.  The  most  important 
changes introduced compared to the Commission’s proposal include:  

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A financial envelope of the programme set at € 1 842 000 000 in current prices and 
an  additional  allocation  of  €  600 000 000  in  2018  prices,  resulting  from  the 
programme-specific adjustment provided for in Article 5 and Annex II of the Council 
Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2020/2093 (i.e. MFF regulation); 

A breakdown of the budget between the strands expressed in percentages instead of 
absolute figures; 

A reinforced inclusion and gender equality dimension; 

A  reference  to  the  “level  playing  field”  in  the  context  of  the  MEDIA  strand  of  the 
programme; 

A stronger reference to music; 

Recognition of the intrinsic and economic value of culture; 

The  deletion  of  the  European  Film  Academy  and  the  European  Union  Youth 
Orchestra as designated beneficiaries; 

The addition of a comitology article; 

An article on data gathering; 

Revised indicators; 

A fixed programme duration aligned with the duration of the Multiannual Financial 
Framework; 

A reference to retroactivity provisions; 

In  general,  the  agreement  reached  preserves  the  objectives  of  the  Commission’s  original 
proposal,  maintaining  the  level  of  ambition  but  allowing  the  flexibility  required  for  the 
implementation of the programme.  

5. 

CONCLUSION 

The Commission accepts the position taken by the Council. 

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