Cultural Deal for Europe Annual Policy Conversation 2026 | Takeaways and Developments
The Cultural Deal for Europe (CDEU) annual policy conversation took place at the beginning of February 2026 and was attended by more than 150 representatives of the cultural and creative sectors (CCS), EU institutions, national governments, and diplomatic delegations. The event, which was co-organised by Culture Action Europe, the European Cultural Foundation and Europa Nostra, was recorded and can be watched here. An official report summarising the policy conversation is also downloadable on the CDEU website.
What developments have taken place in these areas since the event took place in early February 2026? Three topics come to mind: AI for the CCS, mainstreaming culture into the next long-term EU budget, and safeguarding artistic freedom.
1. AI Strategy for the Cultural and Creative Sectors
Artificial intelligence (AI) was a prominent talking point throughout the policy conversation. During the first discussion of the event, MEP Nela Riehl (Chair of the Committee for Culture and Education) spoke of the need for action on AI for the CCS:
Another thing that we really welcome is the AI Strategy for the CCS, because through listening to the Sector we appreciate that we need to tackle this new development… I would just say that we should look at ourselves critically and admit that maybe we’ve been sleeping for a while, that we didn’t take it seriously enough what’s coming up, but we will be working on now, and the fact it’s in there is something I’m thankful for.
The AI Strategy for the CCS is an upcoming strategy set to be released by the European Commission in Q1 2027, which was first unveiled in Commissioner von der Leyen’s mission statement letter to Commissioner Micallef for his mandate, prior to being identified as one of 20 flagship actions in the Culture Compass for Europe.
For the first time publicly, Commissioner Micallef presented three pillars for the upcoming strategy, which have formed the basis of initial reflections alongside Commission Vice-President Hirkkunen:
- fostering innovation and competitiveness in the cultural and creative sectors, including stronger collaboration between tech and culture;
- defending the role of artists and culture and protect their rights, promote ethical and fair uses of AI, and support the preservation of cultural heritage; and
- helping the sector navigate the AI and digital transition.
Such an architecture clearly identifies AI as key to ‘innovation and competitiveness’ in the CCS, and the wish of the Commission to facilitate greater interdisciplinary collaboration between experts and practitioners in the CCS and those in digital and tech fields, while providing support to the CCS to adapt to the AI and digital transition.
The language of the Commissioner was also positive on the need to defend the role of artists, cultural rights, and fair use of AI. In his intervention, he cited a Special Eurobarometer from May 2025 on Europeans’ attitudes towards culture and how 8 out of 10 Europeans prefer human-generated content to AI-generated content. Moreover, he stressed the need to protect human creativity and ensure that AI use is both ethical and human-centred:
We need to ensure that this is a tool that works for us, and not the other way around. We need to ensure that we have the proper guardrails in place. We need to protect what no machine can ever replace: human imagination, art, and that which draws upon emotion and lived experience. […] We need to promote ethical, fair use of AI. We need to make sure it’s supporting creativity, it’s supporting original content, it’s supporting cultural heritage preservation, as well as cultural and linguistic diversity
Of course, it remains to be seen how the future Strategy, as a non-legally binding document, will address the sector’s concerns around copyright protection and fair remuneration, when the current EU legal framework (the AI Act) leaves artists without satisfactory answers. Recently, the own-initiative report on copyright and generative artificial intelligence – opportunities and challenges (2025/2058(INI)) led by MEP Axel Voss was released, whose first two paragraphs highlight the insufficiency of the current Copyright in the Digital Single Market (CDSM) Directive in the context of AI training and need for swift clarification on its application and implementation, as well as the need to update and strengthen EU copyright protections and remuneration clauses:
Current copyright law is insufficient to address the challenge of licensing copyrighted material for GenAI; [we] call for an additional legal framework to clarify licensing rules for GenAI and to address potential infringements of current copyright law; [we] insist that such a framework should include provisions ensuring the effective cooperation of GenAI providers with creators and other rights holders, including a functioning licensing market that restores the bargaining power of rights holders and viable protection solutions.
Such a report is not binding, but the ideas and positions expressed therein are likely to prove influential during the upcoming revision of the CDSM Directive. Furthermore, another own-initiative report from the European Parliament is expected from the CULT Committee on “Cultural and creative sectors in the age of AI” in the months to come, which may also feed into the European Commission’s strategy. Although its exact structure and recommendations remain to be seen, Culture Action Europe understands that the report will likely focus on the need for fairness in all aspects of creative production, upholding cultural rights and freedoms, human-centric AI, and the importance of AI literacy and skills alongside European digital infrastructure to support AI in the CCS.
Our action group on Digital and AI, which is co-facilitated with Michael Culture Association (MCA), is currently working on recommendations for the European Commission for the upcoming AI Strategy for the CCS. (The first consultation took place in February 2026). If you are a member of CAE or MCA and wish to contribute to that process, learn more here.
2. Culture funding in the next MFF (EU budget for 2028-2034)
MEPs strongly support culture mainstreaming: they stressed that cultural funding should be secured not only within AgoraEU, but also across Horizon Europe, the European Competitiveness Fund, the European Social Fund, and Global Europe. Multiple MEPs present expressed their support for allocating 2% of the MFF towards culture, but as MEP Marcos Ros Sempere stressed: “we cannot earmark 2% for culture unless we go through each part of the budget one by one.” The call for mainstreaming culture into the MFF across funding programmes was underlined by MEP Nela Riehl during the first discussion of the day:
So my demand to you as the sector, as stakeholders, would be to also reach out to other Committees where you don’t have this very open door for your demands. That’s something we need you to work actively on, including on the European Social Fund+ or Horizon Europe, to mainstream money in those programmes towards culture.
Since the policy discussion took place, some Parliamentary developments have taken place in relation to the Social Fund+ and Horizon Europe programmes. In the case of the Horizon Programme, Rapporteur MEP Christian Ehler released the ITRE Committee report with amendments that, among other things, call for a ‘Global Societal Challenges Window’ to replace pillar 2 of the programme, which would include 5 windows that reflect the structure of the European Competitiveness Fund (ECF). Such an amendment, if adopted, would reinforce the current absence of culture as a distinct area of support, following the removal of the Culture, Creativity and Inclusive Society under pillar II of the programme in the original Commission proposal. Such reforms would also up the ante on negotiations for the ECF, where the cultural and creative sectors are also currently absent in their legal base, and ensuring that culture is mainstreamed across the fund. (Read more here). MEP Helder Sousa Silva stressed his support at CDEU for better incorporating culture across Horizon Europe and the European Competitiveness Fund:
Innovation in culture is innovation. Culture is the route of competitiveness. We need to emphasise that. One of the problems of the world is the lack of culture, and the lack of culture means the lack of competitiveness and of the EU. We are making sure that researchers and entrepreneurs are applying to the European Competitiveness Fund, like universities and so on.
Regarding the National and Regional Partnership Plans (NRPPs), which represents the Commission’s new proposal to merge agricultural and regional funding and distribute it across 27 Member States in exchange for reforms, MEP Marcos Ros Sempere expressed the REGI Committee’s disagreement with the current proposal and warned that it gives national authorities excessive control over how the money is allocated, whereas regions should be able to decide what and where to fund:
The proposal that we have from the EC has transformed everything into a national envelope, then the national authorities have to decide where in the country and how they are going to spend it. They have to decide between cohesion, agriculture, fisheries, tourism, defence etc., but also which parts of the country they wish to distribute them to, as there is no GDP distribution in the regions. We are opposing this. There is a clear majority – a big majority – in the REGI Committee across almost all the groups to oppose these reforms, because it undermines both the role of the regions and the role of the Parliament.
MEP Marcos Ros Sempere argued that, first, the Plans should include a protected cohesion envelope, avoiding a single pot where cohesion ends up competing against agriculture, defence, and other sectors. Once cohesion resources are earmarked, the next step is to put the necessary regulatory tweaks and amendments so cultural initiatives are clearly eligible under cohesion policy. Such a position was echoed somewhat earlier this month in the report of the Committee of the Regions on the NRPPs, which calls for a ‘do no harm to cohesion’ principle to safeguard the role of the regions in the ability of regions to manage and resources and policies on EU cohesion funding, while also highlighting that ‘the promotion of our cultural diversity and heritage should be considered an investment but not a cost given the intrinsic, but also the social and economic value of these sectors.’
3. The importance of funding and defending artistic freedom
MEPs agreed that, more than ever, the EU must fund and defend artistic freedom. MEP Zoltán Tarr noted the EU should provide access to funds for those organisations that are neglected in their own countries.
It’s becoming more and more important, not just in Europe, but in the EU, to give access to funds for those organisations that are neglected, or are at risk of being neglected, in their own countries. That is a sensitive spot, actually, and that’s why many pro-European forces are criticising the EU for interfering with national matters, and culture is obviously a Member State responsibility. […] We all have the responsibility to make sure that our own respective countries will be on the side of preserving culture and, maybe going forward, to start renewing it, not just defend it. We need to do something more innovative and active.
Such a perspective is particularly poignant from a Hungarian MEP. Even if a non-compliant government is defunded, citizens and independent organisations should still be able to benefit from EU support. That is why we at Culture Action Europe are calling for a rapid-response mechanism under AgoraEU to protect artists at risk.
In the audience exchange, the representatives of the Artistic Freedom Act Steering Group and Resistance Now! campaign called for an Artistic Freedom Act:
Europe’s artists are under threat. […] We believe that there is space for a European Artistic Freedom act, to address the gaps that we have seen today, ensure protections for artists working in similar conditions across all MS and for their cross-border work.
The Culture Compass only proposes monitoring artistic freedom through the State of Culture report, but we are long overdue legally binding protections backed by dedicated funding. Culture Action Europe’s position on how to recognise and actively protect artistic freedom can be found in a dedicated chapter of the Sector Blueprint on the topic. MEP Hannes Heide expressed his support during the event for better protecting artistic freedom, and his curiosity regarding how certain MEPs may respond to an artistic freedom act:
When we take a look at the US, but also in Italy, Hungary, Slovakia etc., then there is a need – many countries don’t even have artistic freedom in their basic law or constitutions – to act upon this, and I’m curious how certain political groups will argue about this and who will supportive of it, and who will veto.
MEP Marcos Ros Sempere also voiced the need for artistic freedom to be incorporated into discussions and initiatives on AI for the CCS:
Culture cannot be kept apart in any of the activities of the EU, including AI. When we talk about AI, we also need to talk about culture. With AI, we need to incorporate culture and artistic freedom, as well as any new civil rights.
The sector’s voice is becoming more organised and louder on the topic of artistic freedom; even if the Commission has not responded so far, it may eventually have to.