EU ministers prioritise access to culture: highlights from the Culture Council meeting
On 26 November, EU Ministers for Culture convened under the Hungarian Presidency of the Council of the EU and approved conclusions on improving and fostering access to culture.
The document welcomes ‘the international #culture2030goal campaign, which aims to integrate a specific culture goal into the Sustainable Development Goals in the post-2030 Agenda’—a campaign Culture Action Europe actively promotes.
The conclusions also invite Member States and the European Commission to develop cultural rights plans (a set of actions planned in the field of cultural rights) and incorporate cultural participation and infrastructure into future National Recovery and Resilience Plans. These are EU Member States’ economic recovery plans, whose implementation was funded by the EU pandemic fund. It is expected that the next EU’s seven-year budget will follow a similar approach and contain national plans that link reforms and investments. The Council also calls for improving Eurostat’s measurement of cultural participation and implementing a Eurobarometer survey on cultural activities and access to culture, which aligns with the commitments made by the Commissioner responsible for Culture, Glenn Micallef, during his hearing in November 2024.
The conclusions emphasise that cultural participation and access to culture should remain a priority in Creative Europe. They propose discounted access to cultural institutions and cultural content in the EU, potentially linked to the European Student Card. During the informal exchange of views, the EU Culture Ministers supported the idea of scaling up national Cultural Passes at the European level.
Another important development during the meeting of the Education, Youth, Culture and Sport Council is an open statement on supporting cooperation and content creation in cultural and creative sectors at the EU level. It calls for protecting the intrinsic value of culture and securing future funding for the sector, with a clear reference to the future of the Creative Europe programme. The statement was initiated by Latvia and Estonia and endorsed by many Member States.
After Hungary, Poland will assume the Presidency of the Council of the EU in January-June 2025. One of the culture-related priorities of the Polish Presidency will be young artists and cultural professionals and their career development. Poland will also focus on the exchange within the Creative Europe programme and address culture funding in the next Multiannual Financial Framework. A revision of the Council conclusions adopted during the French Presidency—on reinforcing intercultural exchanges through the mobility of artists and cultural and creative professionals, and through multilingualism in the digital era—is also planned.
The Polish Presidency’s flagship cultural conference is scheduled for 9-10 April 2025 in Warsaw. The next Cultural Council meeting will take place on 13 May 2025.