Culture Action Europe calls for investigation of Creative Europe Cooperation Grants
This past Friday, we reached out to Culture Action Europe members with an urgent message to find out if member proposals to the Creative Europe Cooperation 2025 call were not evaluated because organisations were listed in more than three projects (as partner or associated partner) without their knowledge or consent.
Since our last message, we have so far collected evidence of at least 30 unique project applications impacted, affecting more than one hundred organisations across Europe. These are not isolated incidents but a systemic failure with concrete consequences: compliant organisations and high-quality applications were excluded from fair competition through no fault of their own.
This week, Culture Action Europe has sent a letter to Georg Häusler, Director for Culture, Creativity and Sport, Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture, European Commission, Sophie Beernaerts, Director, European Education and Culture Executive Agency, MEP Nela Riehl, Chair, Committee on Culture and Education, European Parliament and MEP Emma Rafowicz, Vice-Chair, Committee on Culture and Education, European Parliament, Creative Europe rapporteur.
In this letter, we draw attention to a systemic problem in the evaluation of the call, which we believe occurred due to a loophole in the Funding & Tenders Portal, which currently allows any applicant to add an organisation to proposals without its explicit consent and without any reliable and explicit verification, confirmation or notification mechanism. In the letter, we also request that the European Commission and the European Education and Culture Executive Agency re-evaluate all proposals of the call downgraded and rejected due to partners appearing in more than three applications without their prior consent or proper notification to the PIC holder, as well as implement safeguards for future calls.
The credibility of Creative Europe and the trust of the sector depend on a transparent, fair, and administratively sound evaluation process. Without such safeguards, situations like the current one risk creating tensions within consortia and across the sector, fostering blame, exposing partners to potential legal disputes, and pitting organisations against each other, ultimately weakening the collaborative spirit that underpins the sector.
It must be ensured that organisations who invest a lot of hard work and resources into the preparation of applications are not put at risk by technical loopholes outside their control.
Image credit: Santu