PRESS RELEASE 06092011
‘WE ARE MORE’ CAMPAIGN CALLS ON MINISTERS FOR CULTURE TO SUPPORT PROPOSED BUDGET FOR NEW ‘CREATIVE EUROPE’ PROGRAMME
The we are more campaign calls on the EU Ministers for Culture to use the Informal Ministers’ Meeting in Wroclaw on September 9th to support the 37% budget increase that the Commission recently proposed for its new Culture and MEDIA programme Creative Europe in 2014-2020.
In the face of Europe-wide cuts in the arts, culture and heritage, 20.000 Europeans have signed a manifesto to ensure vital support to culture in the next EU budget. Even if direct support for arts and culture through the current Culture Programme only represents 0.05% of the total EU budget, it is still a Programme of great symbolic value that makes a difference to the access and diversity of the arts available to all European inhabitants.
One year after the launch, the we are more campaign has received high-level institutional support and endorsements by artists. It has also inspired actions among cultural organisations and individuals across Europe and beyond. The campaign website includes a wide range of advocacy tools, and campaign material is now available in more than 30 languages. National campaign co-ordination groups have so far been set up in Sweden, France and Poland.
The we are more campaign will run until 2013, when the EU decides about its next multiannual budget. The campaign promotes culture, heritage and the arts, together with education, social cohesion and environmental sustainability, as key areas in which the EU has to make more bold investments if it wants to reach its growth objectives and Europe to remain a thriving democracy in the future.
On September 8-11, the Europe-wide campaign we are more will attend the European Culture Congress in Wroclaw, Poland, to continue to mobilize support for the campaign and put pressure on Ministers for Culture to defend the European Commission’s proposal for increased support to culture in the next EU budget.
The force behind the we are more campaign is Culture Action Europe, a coalition of more than 100 organisations and many artists across Europe, in strategic partnership with the European Cultural Foundation.
If you would like more information about the we are more campaign, or to schedule an interview with a campaign representative during the Congress in Wroclaw, please contact Campaign Co-ordinator Emma Ernsth on T +32 (0)-471 69 78 80 or emma.ernsth(at)cultureactioneurope.org
