Creative Europe Programme - Performance

Programme in a nutshell

Concrete examples of achievements (*)

^{(*) Key achievements in the table state which period they relate to. Some come from the implementation of the predecessor programmes under the 2014-2020 multiannual financial framework. This is expected and is due to the multiannual life cycle of EU programmes and the projects they finance, where results often follow only after completion of the programmes.}

Budget for 2021-2027

Rationale and design of the programme

Creative Europe is the European Commission’s programme for providing support to the cultural and audiovisual sectors. It invests in actions that reinforce cultural diversity and respond to the needs and challenges of the cultural and creative sectors. The new programme contributes to the recovery of these sectors, reinforcing their efforts to become more inclusive, more digital and more environmentally sustainable.

Budget

Budget programming (million EUR):

^{(*) Only Article 15(3) of the financial regulation.}

  Financial programming:
  + EUR 13.0 million (+ 1%)
  compared to the legal basis*

^{* Top-ups pursuant to Article 5 of the multiannual financial framework regulation are excluded from financial programming in this comparison.}

• The overall budget has been frontloaded, with a third of the creative Europe budget to be committed in the first 2 years of the programme, in order to address the difficult situation of the sector hardly hit by the COVID-19 crisis. In 2022, the creative Europe programme benefited from an overall increase close to EUR 100 million compared to 2021, representing a budget increase of 33% compared to the previous year. Following the financial programming profile, the annual budget for creative Europe returns in 2023 to the regular profile and have a steady but low growth until the end of the programme cycle.
• The difference of budget between the financial programming and the legal basis (EUR 13 million) is due to the additional budget voted in 2022 and 2023 by the budget authority (EUR 5.5 million in 2022 and EUR 7.5 million in 2023).

Budget performance – implementation

Multiannual cumulative implementation rate at the end of 2022 (million EUR):

Annual voted budget implementation (million EUR)⁽¹⁾:

^{(1) Voted appropriations (C1) only.}

Contribution to horizontal priorities

Green budgeting

Contribution to green budgeting priorities (million EUR):

• The programme does not directly support climate mitigation initiatives; however, the environmental sustainability priority remains one of the priorities of the programme and is referred to in all of its calls. The culture strand of the programme continues to co-fund projects encouraging the sector to adopt more environmentally friendly practices and business models. Furthermore, collaborative efforts within the media strand are ongoing to set standards for calculating and reducing CO₂ emissions within the audiovisual production chain.
• In the 2021-2027 programme, ecological concerns are taken into account in the design and implementation of all funded projects, as a cross-cutting issue, in order to reduce their impact on the environment.
• Media and cross-sectoral strands: almost all proposals submitted within the media strand are requested to provide a strategy to improve the greening of the industry (except for two actions where this is not applicable). Changes implemented in the Market & Networking and MEDIA 360 ° actions meant that supported events had to start the process of obtaining a sustainability certification. This will apply to 49 supported events. A focus on greening was also proposed in the Talent & Skills action, in order to improve greening skills within the audiovisual industry; the results were successful, with new funded training on greening and sustainability having been added.
• The European Commission ordered a study on the greening of the creative Europe programme in 2022, with the objective of enhancing good environmental practices among the stakeholders of the programme in the framework of the European Green Deal. The report is currently being finalised based on the comments of the European Commission on the initial draft. This study will impact the greening strategy of the programme in the upcoming years.
• The yearly contribution to climate objectives is based on beneficiary organisations' applications for funding for projects with climate-related topics.

Gender

Contribution to gender equality (million EUR) (*):

<sup>(*) Based on the applied gender contribution methodology, the following scores are attributed at the most granular level of intervention possible:
- 2: interventions the principal objective of which is to improve gender equality;
- 1: interventions that have gender equality as an important and deliberate objective but not as the main reason for the intervention;
- 0: non-targeted interventions (interventions that are expected to have no significant bearing on gender equality);
- 0*: score to be assigned to interventions with a likely but not yet clear positive impact on gender equality.</sup>

• Under the creative Europe programme, special attention is given to applications presenting adequate strategies to ensure gender balance, which is introduced as a cross-cutting priority in all strands of the programme as of the 2021 annual work programme.
• The culture strand of the creative Europe programme is anchored in policy development and EU policy cooperation in the field of culture, notably in line with the objectives of the 2018 New European Agenda for Culture and the 2019-2022 Council Work Plan for Culture. As such, the programme mainstreams the cross-cutting issues of inclusion and diversity through its actions and supports the 2020-2025 gender equality strategy. Special attention is given to applications presenting adequate strategies to ensure gender balance and a more sustainable and environmentally respectful industry, along with inclusion, diversity and representativeness. There is already a significant number of projects aiming at strengthening gender equality in cultural and creative projects, including mentorship projects, sector-specific evaluations and similar. These projects figure in the yearly creative Europe monitoring report, and their results can be further shared through our supported networks. In addition, beyond this requirement applicable to all creative Europe projects, the cooperation scheme includes an explicit inclusiveness priority to encourage projects to focus their objectives and activities on gender issues to explore, test and disseminate innovative gender equality practices.
• Media and cross-sectoral strands: the 2021-2027 strategy of the audiovisual sector envisages further policy development by including gender activities in all European actions that concern the audiovisual sector. The focus of the strategy has moved from gender alone to the broader concept of diversity. Since 2021 the media strand has encouraged companies to include gender and inclusiveness strategies in their businesses, and the 2021-2022 evaluations show that almost all applicants are making use of this opportunity to increase the value of their projects and hence contribute to achieving gender balance. Creative Europe applicants are requested to show the action taken in their companies in support of diversity and gender equality. Also, for the first time, in 2022, the training scheme included a module targeting women, based on capacity building and mentoring opportunities.
• Regarding interventions the principal objective of which is to improve gender equality (score 2), the total yearly contribution to gender is based on beneficiary organisations' applications for funding for projects with gender-related topics.
• Regarding interventions with a likely but not yet clear impact on gender equality (score 0*), the total yearly contribution to gender is the difference between the programme's budget as indicated in the relevant annual work programme and the yearly contribution to gender based on beneficiary organisations' applications for funding for projects with gender-related topics.
• Final data will be available upon completion of projects (normally 2 to 3 years after the start).

Digital

Contribution to digital transition (million EUR):

• The legal base sets out that creative Europe contributes to the digital shift of the cultural and creative sectors.
• In the cooperation projects under the culture strand, the digital priority to help the European cultural and creative sectors to undertake or accelerate their digital transition is included as the first or second priority in the project application. Moreover, creative Europe networks also have an objective to help the European cultural and creative sectors to fully take advantage of new technologies to enhance their competitiveness.
• Media and cross-sectoral strands.
• In line with the media and audiovisual action plan, the media and cross-sectoral strands have prioritised support for the digitisation of the audiovisual and news media industries.
• Under the media strand, a number of existing schemes have integrated a strong digital dimension. The ‘Talents and skills’ scheme includes as a priority the strengthening of the capacity of audiovisual professionals to embrace the digital transition. Support is given to television and online content to facilitate European and international co-productions for exploitation by TV broadcasters and digital platforms. Also, European video-on-demand networks are supported in their efforts to screen a significant proportion of European works. Support to film markets and festivals has been adapted to support hybrid events online.
• Also, as of 2021, new schemes have been established to deepen support to digitisation. The ‘Innovative tools’ scheme supports the promotion and marketing of tools, including online and through the use of data analytics, to increase the reach of European works. The ‘Video games and immersive content’ scheme is dedicated to supporting the development of digital content. Furthermore, a virtual reality / augmented reality industry coalition was established to stimulate cooperation across industry sectors and ensure European leadership.
• Under the cross-sectoral strand, the creative innovation labs encourage innovative approaches for content creation and distribution, taking into account the challenges of the digital transition. Also, support to news media collaborations has been introduced to address structural challenges, including digitisation, to the production and monetisation of quality journalism.
• The yearly contribution to digital objectives is based on beneficiary organisations' applications for funding for projects with digital-related topics. Data is provisional, as finals results will be available upon the completion of projects (normally 2 to 3 years after the start).

Budget performance – outcomes

• 2022 remained a transition year for creative Europe; the ambition was to have the programme reach its normal pace of implementation in 2023. If the travel restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic eased during the year and allowed for richer transnational cooperation among actors of the cultural and creative sectors, the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the rising energy prices greatly impacted the organisations of the sector. To support Ukrainian artists and cultural sectors, a special call of EUR 5 million was included in the 2023 annual work programme and was launched in September 2022 with a deadline of November 2022. The projects have been selected and the results will be communicated in early 2023.
• The 2022 creative Europe annual work programme, adopted in January 2022, allocates around EUR 400 million to the promotion of the diversity and competitiveness of the cultural and creative sectors across Europe, contributing to recovery and resilience in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and in the context of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and its consequences on the European economy.
• In 2022, close to EUR 85 million were allocated to support cooperation projects, the circulation of literary works, cultural platforms, pan-European cultural entities and networks in the field of culture to support the recovery and resilience of the cultural and creative sectors during the year. Cooperation projects received the largest budget for their implementation ever (close to EUR 69 million). Thanks to this large budget, a significant number of projects were able to contribute to creative Europe efforts to foster gender equality, its environmental practices and its contribution to the digitalisation of the cultural and creative sectors. A total of 682 applications for European cooperation projects were received in 2022 and 169 were selected, making the overall selection rate 26%. Only one project had its grant agreement procedure terminated. The number of applications received in 2022 increased by 45% in comparison with the 2021 call for European cooperation projects (482). At the time of writing this paragraph on 8 March 2023, 159 grant agreements between the European Commission and the selected coordinating organisations have been signed out of 168 selected projects. On the other hand, 46 eligible projects were shortlisted for funding for literary translation. Following the retraction of a candidate, the 2022 call for literary translation is planned to support 45 projects, with the objective to translate 496 works by 417 authors from 36 source languages into 20 target languages. All the grant agreements for this call have been signed.
• Under the media strand, in the years 2021 and 2022, 28 calls were published (including 15 in 2022). The calls attracted altogether 2 124 applicants (including 1 195 in 2022), out of which only 63% were successful (69% in 2022) – revealing a high demand for the media strand of the creative Europe programme among the audiovisual community. The relatively lower success rate in 2021 can be explained by the fact that the 2021 calls for proposals took place after a longer than usual break following the 2020 calls (due to delays in securing the 2021-2027 multiannual financial framework) and the fact that the audiovisual sector was in need of funding after the COVID-19 crisis. The applicants requested altogether EUR 1.2 billion (including only EUR 389 million in 2022). Calls that were particularly competitive in 2022 included: training (where 16 out of 72 proposals had to be rejected due to insufficient funds despite them surpassing the high-quality thresholds), market networks (19 out of 77 proposals) and slate (40 out of 147 rejected due to insufficient funding) and mini-slate development (15 out of 67 proposals rejected due to insufficient budget).
• Since 2021, the media strand has been supporting a long-term innovative support measure for the audiovisual industry: the MediaInvest blending facility. The European audiovisual sector faces several challenges simultaneously: it is highly dependent on public funds; the independent European companies are put under ever greater competitive pressure by huge US-based companies to raise the average production budgets; and private investors consider the audiovisual industry to be risky and avoid the much-needed capital investments. The MediaInvest blending facility aims at encouraging private investment in the sector. MediaInvest offers to blend public funds – from creative Europe, InvestEU and the European Investment Fund – with private investments to obtain commercially viable, European-scale audiovisual projects. The backing of public funds will multiply the effect a private investor can have with their funds, therefore decreasing the perceived risks and allowing the projects to reach the critical scale. It will strengthen the position of independent investors by giving them access to increased capital resources. MediaInvest was launched in May 2022, followed by the publication of the call for expression of interest addressed to the financiers. The call, managed by the European Investment Fund, will remain open until 2027.
• Under the cross-sectoral strand there were altogether six calls for proposals launched in 2021-2022 (of which four in 2022). They attracted altogether 243 applications, which requested in total EUR 210 million (including EUR 159 million in 2022 alone). The success rates in these calls (especially the ones addressed to news media) are particularly low, with only 23% of applicants receiving a grant in 2021 and 24% in 2022. These low success rates demonstrate the absorption capacity and need for support of the European news media sector. In 2022 the cross-sectoral strand launched for the first time calls for media literacy, where six grants were awarded (one had to be denied due to limited budget), and calls for defending media freedom and pluralism, where two grants were awarded. By the beginning of February 2022, the processing of the second edition of journalism partnerships was being finalised. However, we can already see that this call was outstandingly popular – a total of 54 consortia applied with diverse projects (compared to 30 applications in 2021).
• For all strands of the programme, preparatory organisational work (learning from best practices) was implemented in 2022 to launch a tender for the creative Europe midterm evaluation of the 2021-2027 programme and the ex post evaluation of the 2014-2020 creative Europe programme. The tender will be launched in 2023.

MFF 2014-2020 – Creative Europe

The 2014-2020 Creative Europe programme was aimed at safeguarding and promoting cultural diversity and strengthening competitiveness.

Budget implementation

Cumulative implementation rate at the end of 2022 (million EUR):

Performance assessment

• The programme has a comprehensive outreach strategy, making it well recognisable among cultural, audiovisual and other creative professionals as well as the general public (audiences of European works). The regularly edited Instagram account @creativeEU reached 16 000 followers in 2021.
• The agreements for the cultural and creative sectors’ guarantee facility signed between the European Investment Fund and financial intermediaries before the end of 2020 yielded the best results so far in 2021. In 2021 alone, EUR 460 million was made available to 2 272 small and medium-sized enterprises from the cultural and creative sectors, bringing the overall results since the start of the activity to EUR 1.29 billion and 5 898 small and medium-sized enterprises.
• Year after year, media-supported audiovisual works receive some of the most prestigious recognitions in the world. Some notable examples in 2021 included three Oscar awards and 11 Oscar nominations for films supported under the 2014-2020 programme. Another outstanding achievement was registered in the video game industry: It Takes Two, a video game about solving family problems through cooperation created by Swedish company Hazelight Games and developed with the support of the media grant, won three awards (including the main one: game of the year) at The Game Awards, the most important annual awards ceremony honouring achievements in the video game industry. During the Autumn 2021 festivals season, six new titles supported by the media subprogramme in the development phase received several nominations at the Venice Film Festival.
• Media-supported works reached at least 29 million national viewers and almost 20 million viewers in other countries in 2021, based on reports by several dozens of beneficiaries of the 2020 TV content call for proposals, submitted by the end of 2021.
• Under the culture subprogramme, the first edition of the journalism partnerships, aimed at improving the exchange of news of cross-border importance, funded seven high-quality applications.
• Within the European framework for action on cultural heritage, over 60 actions have been put in place to address the following five pillars: inclusiveness, sustainability, resilience, innovation and global partnerships. They include creative Europe‑funded actions such as a joint EU-UNESCO project engaging with youth and schools on the topic of heritage (EUR 300 000), which came to an end in April 2021, or ‘cultural heritage in action’, a peer-learning programme launched by the Commission in 2020 for local and regional policymakers to exchange knowledge on cultural heritage. It produced a first catalogue of 32 local and regional best practices on the participatory governance of cultural heritage, the adaptive reuse of built heritage and the quality of interventions on cultural heritage.
• Under the cross-sectoral programme, the cultural and creative spaces and cities project (2018-2021, EUR 1.5 million) continued the implementation of its activities in 2021. The wider context of cultural centres was explored for a better use of public spaces for social regeneration through culture. Cities and regional authorities were actively involved in the project and a series of urban labs and co-creation labs were organised to develop new ways of working together involving Creative Commons licences. Due to the COVID‑19 crisis, the remaining urban labs and other workshops took place virtually, including the project’s closing conference, which was held at the beginning of February 2021.
• Overall the evident successes of creative Europe start from building a cohesive cross-sectoral branding recognised by cultural and creative players in the EU as synonym of high creative and organisational quality. The different strands worked in synergy addressing the common challenges of their sectors. The largest success might arguably be the launch of CCS GF – the first non-grant-based support to cultural and creative organisations, whose demand exceeded expectations and which therefore has been followed up with developments under 2021-2027 multiannual financial framework. Expanding the group of beneficiaries could also be considered a success (e.g. the growth of the Europa cinemas network), not to mention the fact that many schemes have been successfully reformed from year to year during the multiannual financial framework to answer to the changes in the markets. On the other hand, unfortunately the programme has not led to a systematic , structural transformation in the markets, mainly due to its modest scale. Therefore the support to European cultural and creative sectors needs to continue, as their competitiveness and cultural diversity keeps on being challenged by external competition and there is not enough private funding available to secure their performance.

Contribution to the sustainable development goals