One of the key demands of the #CulturalDealEU was to earmark 2% for culture across the National Recovery and Resilience Plans (NRRPs). While almost all Member States have presented their strategies and started getting payments from Brussels, the fight to have culture more prominently featured in the NRRPs is not over yet. 18 Members of the European Parliament from six different political groups of the Assembly (EPP, S&D, Renew Europe, Greens/EFA, ECR, The Left) have joined forces to follow up on the campaign for the 2% for culture in the national recovery strategies of the EU’s Member States. The 18 cross-party MEPs, all members of the Parliament’s Cultural and Creators Friendship Group (CCFG), have sent a question for written answer to the European Commission, expressing their concerns about ambivalent and imbalanced investments available for culture under the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF).
Taking stock of Culture Action Europe’s mapping of interventions relevant for culture in the NRRPs, MEPs recall that only 14 member states have included the cultural and creative sectors and industries in their NRRPs and that the goal of at least 2% earmarking for culture as asked by the Parliament in its Resolution on the Cultural Recovery of Europe has been achieved only at an aggregate EU level.
Against this backdrop, MEPs are asking the Commission what measures it envisages to prevent that heterogeneity of public investment across the EU members causes a recovery at different speeds across EU countries and threatening Europe’s cultural diversity and cultural cooperation.
Furthermore, the CCFG members are asking the Commission to provide more detailed figures showing how interventions targeting the cultural and creative sectors and industries in many NRRPs, such as the investments in energy efficiency of cultural venues and tourism, were supposed to indirectly benefit creators and cultural operators.
This key demand echoes that of the representatives of Europe’s cultural ecosystem, concerned that, despite some interesting exceptions, culture and cultural agents are either absent from the recovery strategies or instrumentally perceived for their contribution to the economy.
This parliamentary question follows the presentation in the CULT Committee of the Opinion on the Implementation of the RRF for the committees on Budgets (BUDG) and the Economy (ECON). CCFG members have also put forward a few joint amendments there, which also reflect the main recommendations of the cultural and creative sectors and industries, stressing on better working conditions of artists and cultural workers, which should be in the focus of the EU Member States as they unroll their recovery strategies.
In the spirit of the #CulturalDealEU, Culture Action Europe has encouraged MEPs and the Member States to ensure that the actions relevant for culture in the various NRRPs do address the actual needs of small and micro organisations, and that the benchmarking of interventions supporting culture is included in the next Council Work Plan for Culture, creating the conditions for knowledge sharing and mutual learning among national policymakers.
The question for written answer is co-signed by Niklas Nienaß (Greens/EFA, Germany), Irena Joveva (Renew Europe, Slovenia), Andrey Slabakov (ECR, Bulgaria), Diana Riba i Giner (Greens/EFA, Spain), Massimiliano Smeriglio (S&D, Italy), Tomasz Frankowski (EPP, Poland), Karolin Braunsberger-Reinhold (EPP, Germany), Ibán García Del Blanco (S&D, Spain), Monica Semedo (Renew Europe, Luxembourg), Alexis Georgoulis (The Left, Greece), Hannes Heide (S&D, Austria), Domènec Ruiz Devesa (S&D, Spain), Romeo Franz (Greens/EFA, Germany), Loucas Fourlas (EPP, Cyprus), Laurence Farreng (Renew Europe, France), Marcos Ros Sempere (S&D, Spain), Salima Yenbou (Greens/EFA, France), Rasmus Andresen (Greens/EFA, Germany).
