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110 creative industry groups call for more support for post-COVID recovery from EU and European governments
By Chris Cooke | Published on Tuesday 3 November 2020
As a second COVID surge occurs across Europe – with lockdowns and other restrictions back in force in multiple countries – 110 organisations representing the cultural and creative sectors across the European Union have called on the European Commission and the national governments of EU member states to “place culture at the core of each and every recovery plan”.
The organisations, who have signed open letters to the EC and all the EU national governments, say that they represent “millions of European creators and cultural and creative businesses”. At a basic level, they call on political leaders across Europe to “at the very least [ensure that] 2% of each national recovery and resilience facility budget is allocated to the cultural and creative sector, in line with the European Parliament’s recent call in its resolution on the cultural recovery of Europe”.
The open letter to the EC states: “Culture has always been a vibrant social resource, able to heal wounds in times of crisis. Culture carries tremendous intrinsic value and contributes significantly to the economy, with 4.2% of the EU GDP and 7.4 million jobs created. Culture is a vital component of the European integration and solidarity. It unites the European multitude of mentalities and histories in all their diversity, and shapes a common space for Europeans to develop a shared identity”.
Focusing on the crisis caused by the COVID pandemic, it goes on: “Cultural and creative sectors themselves are among the most seriously damaged by the pandemic. Cultural activities are being halted, millions of jobs are frozen or wiped out, micro and small businesses are on the brink of bankruptcy and many talents are forced to leave the sector altogether”. It then adds: “There is a risk that citizens will not find their vibrant cultural life back in the post-pandemic world”.
While noting some positive moves at both an EU and national level to support the cultural and creative sectors through the COVID crisis and beyond, the open letters say that more clarity and concrete support is still needed, and that the Recovery And Resilience Facility set up by the EU to support post-pandemic recovery has a key role to play.
“Now that the dialogue with the member states on the design of their national recovery and resilience plans has kicked off”, it says, “it is crucial that culture and creative sectors are fully included in the attainment of the main Recovery And Resilience Facility objectives”.
Music organisations signing the letters include the IFPI, IMPF and ICMP, the International Artist Organisation Of Music, the International Federation Of Musicians, song right collecting society grouping GESAC, performer right collecting society grouping AEPO-ARTIS, pan-European independent music company trade group IMPALA, and various live industry organisations like the European Arenas Association, Live DMA, Liveurope and Yourope.
Participating organisations will be sharing social media posts to back up the letters later today using the hashtags #actforculture and #cultureneedsmore.
