Culture and Security | Towards the Culture Compass: A Sector Blueprint

This briefing on Culture and Security (Chapter 9) was edited and coordinated by Culture Action Europe and forms part of 10 policy briefings in the discussion paper ‘Towards the Culture Compass: A Sector Blueprint‘ published by Culture Action Europe. Read the Sector Blueprint to discover other briefings on:

• Artistic Freedom
• Working Conditions
• Artistic Research, Culture and Innovation
• International Cultural Relations
• Culture and Health and Well-Being
• Culture and Sustainability
• Cultural Participation
• Access to Cultural and Arts Education
• Culture and Digital

download the sector blueprint

Context

Russia’s full-scale, unprovoked invasion of Ukraine shattered assumptions about European security and exposed the lack of a European Defence Union. The Israel-Gaza war further highlighted divisions among Member States in responding to atrocities. At the same time, shifts in transatlantic relations under the new Trump administration underline a hard truth: Europe cannot outsource its strategic autonomy or rely indefinitely on U.S. security guarantees.

That leads Europe to develop its own defence capabilities, from the White Paper for European Defence to the ReArm Europe Plan — Readiness 2030. Europe’s security debate has also widened. Alongside defence and cyber, institutions now stress societal resilience, democratic robustness and preparedness. The Commission’s Preparedness Union Strategy (2025) and the Preparedness Niinistö Report explicitly link hybrid threats and disinformation to societal cohesion. The upcoming European Democracy Shield is expected to focus on policies to counter foreign interference, preserve fairness and integrity of elections, support independent media and journalists as well as protect civil society. However, culture’s role is yet to be recognised in strategic documents related to European security and resilience.

Europe’s adversaries actively weaponise culture. Authoritarian regimes treat culture not as ‘soft power’ but simply power. In 2024, investigations report that Russia allocated more than €1 billion on propaganda through culture and media in 2024 (whereas the Creative Europe budget amounted to €335 million in 2024). It reveals the stark imbalance between the EU’s limited investment in culture, which is meant to uphold democracy and social cohesion, and the aggressive strategies of autocracies seeking to instrumentalise culture. Russia’s war against Ukraine has a clear cultural dimension: cultural and heritage sites are deliberately targeted, communities are displaced, undermining memory, identity and language. As of 25 August 2025, 1553 cultural heritage sites and 2388 cultural infrastructure facilities have been damaged or destroyed in Ukraine due to Russian aggression.

China’s Confucius Institutes are seen as instruments of Chinese influence and have raised concerns for promoting Beijing-aligned narratives, operating under opaque agreements with host institutions, and potentially undermining academic freedom and institutional autonomy.

This also raises an important question: shall we limit those instances of artistic expression that explicitly or implicitly spread malign and undemocratic narratives, and is there a credible way to identify them? How far should we go in ‘tolerating the intolerant’? There is also fear that positioning culture as part of security serves yet another example of instrumentalisation of culture, and even more, turns culture into counter-propaganda.

To this we say that culture strengthens resilience by mobilising communities and rebuilding trust. The arts, as a domain where expressions can be shared freely across cultures and contexts, through forms and languages that resonate universally, even when rooted in 30 specific traditions, provide a strong foundation for social cohesion. Investing in robust, independent cultural production rooted in democratic values and developed through cross-border European cooperation is a strategic defence against hybrid threats. This does not mean prescribing the production of specific content, but rather giving artists the means to work with whatever democratic cultural form and content they see fit (see the Artistic Freedom chapter of the Blueprint). The safeguard is the arm’s-length principle: a diverse ecosystem of independent institutions and funding schemes that allocate public resources without dictating artistic choices. Preserving the autonomy of cultural organisations is therefore a precondition for any culture-and-security agenda.

In this context, ensuring the mobility and protection of cultural and creative professionals is a matter of strategic resilience. Barriers to mobility undermine the cross-border collaboration essential for democratic cultural exchange. At the same time, artists at risk who are often targeted precisely because of the societal impact of their work need specific, structural support. Enabling their safe movement and continued practice helps sustain the cultural ecosystems that support open and democratic societies.

Proposals

• Recognise cultural participation as a strategic pillar of the European Democracy Shield to counter disinformation and manipulation while promoting democratic values.
• Ensure dedicated funding for cultural participation and European content creation under the ‘Democratic participation and rule of law’ pillar within the CERV+ strand of the AgoraEU programme.
• Mandate clear labelling of AI-generated content and deepfakes in line with Article 50(4) of the AI Act, and require more granular, transparent disclosure of training data sources to avoid embedding authoritarian narratives in AI systems.
• Allocate 2% of Russia’s frozen assets for the cultural recovery of Ukraine.
• Integrate culture into EU security, preparedness and resilience frameworks and the EU mental-health policy to support civic trust, citizen mobilisation and a shared European narrative.
• Facilitate cultural mobility by improving the implementation of the Schengen Visa Code. The Schengen rules should better account for the specific working conditions of artists and workers in the cultural and creative sectors, such as irregular income, non-standard contracts, and short-notice invitations. A centralised, long-term training programme should be established for staff at consulates, embassies, and external visa agencies to raise awareness of these sector-specific realities and ensure consistent application of the Visa Code. Greater flexibility in accepted documentation (guarantee letters or project grants as proof of means) must be ensured to support mobility in the cultural and creative sectors.
• Establish a dedicated EU pilot scheme for at-risk and displaced artists and workers in the cultural and creative sectors under the Programme for Pilot Projects and Preparatory Actions. Building on the model of the EU Pilot Fellowship Scheme SAFE for at-risk researchers, the scheme should provide grants and coordinated support for those affected by wars, climate emergencies, and other systemic harms.
• Include culture as a standalone goal in the post-2030 UN Sustainable Development Agenda, and position it as a central pillar of long-term sustainable development and global stability. Beyond its contributions to environmental sustainability, recognising culture in this way would reinforce its role in promoting social cohesion, countering polarisation, and strengthening the resilience of communities.

Culture Compass for Europe

The Culture Compass for Europe released by the European Commission in November 2025 includes no dedicated chapter or sub-section to culture and security. In section 6 (An EU that champions international cultural relations and partnerships), it nevertheless recognises the importance of culture both internally and externally as an enabler of peace and building bridges between people. Within this context, an update of the 2016 EU Strategy on international cultural relations is announced and reference is also made to the diverse dangers that cultural heritage faces, as exemplified by the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine.

The Culture Compass is accompanied by a draft Joint Declaration entitled “Europe for Culture – Culture for Europe” to be agreed upon and signed by the European Commission, European Parliament and the Council of the EU. Article 10 of the current draft commits to “enhancing cooperation on crisis preparedness and integrating culture and cultural heritage into security and crisis preparedness planning, crisis and risk management, post-crisis reconstruction, recovery and peace-building processes.”