Debate: Cultural solidarity with Ukraine and a joint emergency response mechanism for cultural recovery in Europe
Date: THURSDAY, 20 OCTOBER 2022
Speaker: Helena Dalli
Language: EN

It is our duty to help our Ukrainian friends win the disinformation war and support the cultural and creative sectors, which had been damaged due to the widespread destruction of infrastructure in villages and cities, which includes extensive damage to tangible and intangible heritage. Culture is essential for the resilience and for the recovery of the country. In response to the question related to the implementation of further measures to counter Russia’s propaganda and disinformation campaign, the Commission acted on several fronts. First, limiting broadcasting and dissemination: we adopted sanctions against the Russian state media, suspending the broadcast of their content to the EU. To ensure this, and in line with the code of practice on disinformation, we have been in regular contact with the major online platforms: Google, Meta, Microsoft, TikTok and Twitter. Second also comes fact-checking: we have built on the experience of the EU, which has been acting against Russian disinformation since 2015. The European Digital Media Observatory coordinates actions by EU fact checkers and researchers. The Commission supports the Government of Ukraine to improve its own capacities in countering disinformation, in close cooperation with civil society and using the expertise of European counterparts. Thirdly, education: on 11 October of this year, the Commission published guidelines for teachers and educators with practical guidance for promoting digital literacy and tackling disinformation through education and training. These guidelines reflect the fundamental role education has in media literacy. This is in addition to the External Action Service’s East StratCom Task Force, which has been acting against Russian disinformation and information-manipulating campaigns since 2015. This involves strategic communication, raising awareness, monitoring and the analysis of foreign information manipulation. In response to the question about the possibility to mobilise further resources to assist cultural and creative sectors and professionals in Ukraine, the Commission implemented since the onset of the Russian aggression against Ukraine important initiatives which can be further enhanced, and I shall highlight some. Since the very outset of the Russian invasion, the Commission showed flexibility to cope with the immediate needs of Ukrainian cultural and creative sectors. Under Creative Europe, we extended deadlines for ongoing calls, thereby allowing projects in the making to include Ukrainian organisations and artists in their proposals. And we are proud to see that the sector has responded quickly and favourably. Then we designed special provisions to allow for swift available funding through mobility grants for artists via the new ‘Culture Moves Europe’ scheme. Ukrainian artists are eligible under the scheme, which has a total budget of EUR 21 million and will offer good and concrete opportunity for artists over the next three years. We will also support grass-roots organisations for small-scale projects through the House of Europe programme, which fosters professional and creative exchange and comes with a budget of almost EUR 12 million. In order to allow artists and organisations to engage in and continue their operations even if they are displaced, we launched a special Creative Europe call for Ukraine with a financial envelope of EUR 5 million. The special call open until 29 November includes EUR 2 million to support Ukrainians’ access to culture and use of the arts to facilitate the integration of displaced people and EUR 1 million to assess assist Ukrainian institutions with expertise and training, with a view to prepare the recovery of the cultural and creative sectors. We also plan to facilitate long-term cooperation between EU, European and Ukrainian organisations to reinforce their mutual link. Our Creative Europe upcoming cooperation call has an overall budget of EUR 60 million. In order to secure the protection of cultural heritage in the country, we will also provide expertise to build the capacity of Ukrainian cultural heritage professionals to deal with the protection of cultural heritage with a smaller, dedicated action under Creative Europe that will complement the support provided by Member States or relevant organisations. When it comes to emergency action, we are supporting the protection of Ukrainian cultural heritage through other EU funding sources, such as the EU Civil Protection Mechanism, in cooperation with the Member States, which has been activated for cultural heritage for the first time in Europe, as well as through the rapid response pillar of the Neighbourhood Development and International Cooperation Instrument, which provided EUR 2 million to the Aliph Foundation. Other ongoing EU-funded projects provide financial support to recruit Ukrainian artists and cultural professionals such as the EU for Culture, which is a regional programme for Eastern Partnership countries. On mainstreaming culture across all policy fields with a view to building a resilient European cultural space, I confirm that this is part of the European Union’s priorities in the field of culture. I highlight the Commission’s satisfaction with the Recovery and Resilience Facility, which is going to bring a great amount of resources and to the cultural and creative sectors. In their national plans, Member States have been showing determination to earmark significant funding to improve their creative and cultural sectors. The impact of the facility can be counted in more than EUR 10 billion-worth of measures directly supporting culture and representing approximately 2% of the 26 national recovery and resilience plans in all so far. The EU has already proven its capacity to face and react to global changes when standing united. The Commission can, for instance, apply flexibility clauses under existing programmes and financial instruments to provide emergency response. This was done directly in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and again at the onset of Russia’s unjustified invasion of Ukraine.  No new mechanisms are needed. I trust that we can achieve a lot by maximising the impact of existing instruments. The Union’s Civil Protection Mechanism was used for the first time by Ukraine to request protection of cultural heritage. Italy, Germany and Norway provided kits, equipment and sandbags to protect cultural assets.