The EU’s Creative Europe programme (2014-2020) has a budget of €1.4 billionand about 31% of this is goes to the ‘Culture’ sub-programme
projects and initiatives to celebrate Europe’s cultural diversity and enhance our shared cultural heritage through the development of cross-border co-operation between cultural operators and institutions.
Three objectives…
The Culture programme aims to achieve three main objectives: to promote cross-border mobility of those working in the cultural sector; to encourage the transnational circulation of cultural and artistic output; and to foster intercultural dialogue.
…and four funding opportunities
For the achievement of these objectives, the programme supports three strands of activities: cultural actions; European-level cultural bodies; and analysis and dissemination activities.
The Culture programme is the only EU programme aimed directly at the arts, cultural and heritage sectors and therefore takes into account the needs and the specificities of these and is easy to apply to without the need of consultants – but do make use of the UK Cultural Contact Point – always happy to help.
To be eligible, projects must be a genuine cultural collaboration between at least three cultural organisations from at least three different eligible European countries. “Culture” includes all aspects of performing arts, visual arts, literature and heritage – but it excludes audiovisual projects (these are covered under the MEDIA programme for the audiovisual sector).
You should also be aware that the European Commission is keen to support “interdisciplinary” projects covering several cultural areas or heritage and / or projects which address the theme of “intercultural dialogue” (which aims “to strengthen respect for cultural diversity…to support the coexistence of different cultural identities & beliefs…to acknowledge the contribution of different cultures to the EU member states’ heritage & way of life…“). There is also a strand for literary translation projects.
The EU will provide up to 50% of the costs of such projects.
THE CULTURE PROGRAMME DOES NOT SUPPORT TOURS OR BILATERAL EXCHANGES OR CAPITAL PROJECTS OR THE PURCHASE OF EQUIPMENT OR ACTIVITIES JUST HAPPENING IN ONLY ONE COUNTRY (or activities “dressed up” to look European but which are actually just pretending to be European to try to access these funds).
Apart from
Eligible countries (see up-to-date list here)
28 EU Member States
Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Rep, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, UK
EEA / EFTA countries
Norway and Iceland (not Switzerland)
“Candidate” countries, potential candidate countries and countries covered by the European Neighbourhood Policy which have expressed their interest in participating in the Creative Europe Programme:
Currently, and for ‘Culture only: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Georgia, Moldova, Montenegro, Republic of Serbia, Turkey.