Explanatory Memorandum to COM(2018)366 - Creative Europe programme (2021 to 2027) - Main contents
Please note
This page contains a limited version of this dossier in the EU Monitor.
| dossier | COM(2018)366 - Creative Europe programme (2021 to 2027). |
|---|---|
| source | COM(2018)366  |
| date | 30-05-2018 |
1. CONTEXTOFTHEPROPOSAL
Reasons and objectives
Europe's rich cultural heritage and dynamic cultural and creative sectors are a part of European identity. Culture and cultural expressions manifest themselves strongly in the daily life of the Union's citizens and can contribute to wellbeing, active citizenship, common values, social inclusion and the development of intercultural dialogues as well as of a free, pluralistic and diverse media environment. The cultural and creative sectors fully contribute to the Union's economic development, generating jobs and growth, and are thus key for Europe's future.
These sectors have also the power to shape our aspirations and relations to others and to the world, as well as the places and landscapes where we live or the lifestyles we develop. They promote European excellence on the world stage, reinforcing the Union's global position.
European support to culture and the audiovisual sector has been provided through various funding programmes for many years. The Creative Europe programme 2014-2020 constitutes a unique platform for coordinated and constructive support to them across the continent. The current proposal builds on this experience and sets out to continue and strengthen well working elements, including via a reinforced budget which reflects the European Union's commitment to the sectors and the recognition of their essential role in our Union. Through the many activities and projects it will fund, the proposal will be a key enabler to reinforce European cultural and creative sectors, and to unlock their full potential in an economic, social and international perspective.
Article 3 of the Treaty on European Union states that the "Union's aim is to promote peace, its values and the well-being of its people" and, among others, "it shall respect its rich cultural and linguistic diversity, and shall ensure that Europe's cultural heritage is safeguarded and enhanced". Along these lines, the Commission's reflection paper on the future of EU finances states that "the EU budget supports this aim, working together with national budgets and complementing other efforts at European and national level".
To promote the competitiveness and cultural and linguistic diversity of the audiovisual industry, the EU has used several instruments combining legislation, policy support and funding. The Digital Single Market strategy for Europe calls for a modernisation of the legal framework which in turn requires the adaptation of the EU financial support to the audiovisual industry, to reflect new market trends, changing consumers' patterns and the increasing convergence between linear and non-linear services.
However, the cultural and creative sectors are facing a number of challenges.
First, the cultural and creative sectors in Europe have to face increased competition from new and strong global players such as search engines and web based social platforms. This has led to the need to develop new business models and realise the potential for growth by taking advantage of digital technologies in order to be competitive in a global market.
Second, the digital shift is bringing about a change in paradigm, having a massive impact on how cultural goods are created, managed, disseminated, accessed, consumed and monetised, changing the value propositions which prevailed in the analogue era. Digitisation has facilitated the distribution of cultural and creative content and services, but it has also intensified competition of content across borders on a global scale.
Third, there is a highly fragmented market for cultural and creative works stemming largely from Europe's cultural and linguistic diversity, which results in the cultural and creative sectors being essentially fragmented along national and linguistic lines and lacking critical mass. This diversity is part of Europe's cultural richness.
At the same time, the transnational circulation of works remains limited. It is therefore important to stimulate the transnational circulation and co-production of works across borders and to develop more effective solutions to reach audiences across borders.
Fourth, market concentration is a growing concern. In certain cultural and creative fields, a trend is emerging where a limited number of major players account for a large part of global sales.
Fifth, Europe's audiovisual industry is internationally recognised but it is not competitive enough within the Digital Single Market. 80% of European films are national productions but co-productions travel better than national films. In some countries, audio-visual professionals need to strengthen their capacity to operate.
Finally, there is a growing phenomenon of disinformation. Content industries, in particular the news media sector, are at the core of the fight to maintain a culture of healthy democratic debate. Artistic freedom and diverse and free media environment are central to conveying diverging opinions and perspectives. They contribute to pluralistic societies where citizens are able to make informed choices, including in the context of political elections.
These challenges of a trans-national nature require a targeted European approach to optimise the potential of the sectors to contribute to jobs, growth and social inclusion, including for the most disadvantaged and hard-to-reach groups. They are common to all EU Member States and have crossborder dimensions. Indeed, while action at national level is important, the single Member States on their own do not have enough leverage to fully address them.
The aim of this initiative is to build on the Creative Europe Programme's achievements and scale up efforts with a view to meeting the objectives set in relation to more recent policy developments. The new Creative Europe programme intends to offer opportunities for operators to develop technologically and artistically innovative European trans-border initiatives to exchange, co-create, co-produce and distribute European works and make them accessible to a wide and diverse audience. It will intensify testing new business models enabling creators to make best use of digital technology for creation and audience development.
In order to face increasingly competitive international markets, the new Programme will support crossborder partnerships and networks as well as new collaboration models, to encourage the scaling up of Europe’s cultural and creative sectors. This will strengthen the position of European actors in the European and global markets for instance by supporting their international presence, marketing and branding. The programme will invest in developing creative capacities of artists and industry professionals by allowing them to collaborate across borders. It will support initiatives that allow more people to participate in culture and thus contribute to a socially more inclusive European society.
The revised Audiovisual Media Services Directive will provide further opportunities for the promotion of European works, but accompanying support measures are needed to help make European non-national works more widely available across Europe and beyond. The new Programme will tackle the challenges that the audiovisual sector is facing – including the digital shift – by fostering cooperation across the value chain – from the early stages of production to distribution and exhibition. It will specifically support projects with high circulation potential and a global market approach and access to content across all platforms.
The new Programme will also support actions aiming at reinforcing Europe’s news media sector, journalistic freedom, diversity and pluralism of journalistic content, as well as a critical approach to media content through media literacy.
This proposal provides for a date of application as of 1 January 2021 and is presented for a Union of 27 Member States, in line with the notification by the United Kingdom of its intention to withdraw from the European Union and Euratom based on Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union received by the European Council on 29 March 2017.
Consistency with existing policy provisions
This initiative contributes to the ambition expressed in Rome in March 2017 by the 27 Member States and EU institutions for a Union "where citizens have new opportunities for cultural and social development and economic growth [...]; a Union which preserves our cultural heritage and promotes cultural diversity"1. This ambition was confirmed at the Gothenburg Leaders' Summit in November 2017 and by the European Council in December 2017, which highlighted the 2018 European Year of Cultural Heritage2 as a pivotal opportunity to increase awareness of the social and economic importance of culture and heritage.
It is consistent with the Communication on Strengthening European Identity through Education and Culture3, where the Commission stated that it is "in the shared interest of all Member States to harness the full potential of education and culture as drivers for jobs, economic growth, social fairness, active citizenship as well as a means to experience European identity in all its diversity".
The initiative is in line with the 2018 Commission Communication on a New European Agenda for Culture4, the 2016 Joint EEAS/Commission Communication 'Towards an EU strategy for international cultural relations'5 and the 2014 Commission Communication 'Towards an integrated approach to cultural heritage for Europe'6, which all plead for a stronger role for culture in the further social, economic and international development of our Union.
The initiative is consistent with the 2018 Commission Communication “Tackling online disinformation: a European Approach”7, in particular with its overarching objective of promoting “diversity of information, in order to enable citizens to make informed decisions based on critical thinking, through support to high quality journalism, media literacy, and the rebalancing of the relation between information creators and distributors”.
Finally, the initiative takes into account the renewed EU Industrial Policy strategy, adopted in September 20178, which highlighted the need to upgrade European industry for the digital age by supporting innovation and creativity, supporting skills development and providing a favourable environment for entrepreneurship and the scale-up of dynamic small and medium-sized enterprises.
Concerning more particularly the audiovisual sector, the MEDIA strand will accompany EU Digital Single Market policies. These include in particular the proposals to modernise the copyright framework as well as the revised Audiovisual Media Services Directive. The latter will strengthen the capacity of European audiovisual players to finance, produce and disseminate works that can be sufficiently visible on the different media available ( such as TV, cinema or Video on Demand) and are attractive to audiences in an increasingly open and competitive market within Europe and beyond. Support must be scaled up in order to address recent market developments, including the stronger position of global distribution platforms in comparison to national broadcasters traditionally investing in the production of European works.
Contents
EYCH 2018: https://europa.eu/cultural-heritage/
COM(2018) 267 final.
COM/2014/0477 final
COM(2018) 236 final
COM(2017) 479 final
The Commission proposal for the 2021-2027 Multiannual Financial Framework set a more ambitious goal for climate mainstreaming across all EU programmes, with an overall target of 25% of EU expenditure contributing to climate objectives. The contribution of this programme to the achievement of this overall target will be tracked through an EU climate marker system at an appropriate level of disaggregation, including the use of more precise methodologies where these are available. The Commission will continue to present the information annually in terms of commitment appropriations in the context of the annual draft budget.
To support the full utilisation of the potential of the programme to contribute to climate objectives, the Commission will seek to identify relevant actions throughout the programme preparation, implementation, review and evaluation processes.
The Programme will promote gender equality and contribute to achieving a more balanced gender participation in the cultural and creative industries.
Consistency with other Union policies and programmes
The Programme will be consistent and complementary to other Union instruments, in particular Erasmus+, the Funds covered by Regulation (…) [the Common Provisions Regulation], including the European Social Fund and the European Regional Development Fund, the Horizon Europe Programme as well as the external financing instruments. Based on the Treaty's mainstreaming provision and the new political approach based on cultural crossovers, as set out in the New European Agenda for Culture, the programme aims at developing synergies with the following policy areas.
Synergies with education and youth policies
The future Erasmus programme will be an important complement to the Creative Europe programme. Cooperation between institutions and organisations active in education, training and youth, supported by Erasmus+, will help equip individuals with the knowledge, skills and competences needed to face social and economic challenges as well as fulfil their potential for innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship, in particular within the digital economy. Activities linked to reinforcing all aspects of creativity in education and enhancing individual key competencies, will constitute a major link between both programmes. In addition, within the framework of the European Solidarity Corps, there will be increased opportunities to attract young people dedicated to restoring or preserving cultural heritage sites.
Synergies with the Rights and Values programme
There are strong links – notably in the fields of media pluralism, European identity, values and cultural heritage – between the Creative Europe programme and the Rights and Values programme that will empower citizens through the promotion and protection of rights, values and equality and through creating opportunities for engagement, participation and remembrance.
Synergies with employment and social policies
The future European Social Fund + will be a major building block of the 'Investing in People, Social Cohesion and Values' cluster. It will provide support to citizens by investing in human capital, supporting (youth) employment, social innovation, the acquisition of basic digital skills and the integration of migrants, and by supporting the most deprived (social inclusion). As such, there are strong links with the objectives of the Creative Europe programme. Cultural and linguistic diversity – which Creative Europe aims at reinforcing, for example through enhancing the circulation of European cultural and audiovisual works across borders – are important aspects of inclusive societies as they contribute to intercultural dialogue. Furthermore, by reinforcing the competitiveness of cultural and creative sectors, the programme favours the creation of jobs in these sectors.
Synergies with regional, urban and rural policies
The EU's regional, urban and rural development policies are instrumental in promoting the restoration of cultural heritage and supporting cultural and creative industries. Potential synergies will be ensured to reinforce the complementarity between these instruments and Creative Europe, which can support peer learning on meaningful long-term cultural investment plans for creative industries, tourism, social inclusion, cultural heritage restauration based on quality standards of renovation of cultural heritage and increasing their contribution to the objectives of the regional and urban development and financial self-sustainability of cultural projects.
Synergies with the Single Market
Creative Europe will complement the actions funded by the future Single Market Programme where the aspects of empowering people and fostering creative talent in the respective sectors are concerned. Synergies can also be found with tourism which has a cultural dimension and can be seen as a way of enhancing mutual understanding among people. Creative Europe will focus its interventions, where adequate, on the creativity and cultural elements of certain creative industries (such as design and fashion) by concentrating on promotion or skills development, cross-border cooperation and mobility. Complementarity will be also ensured with actions supporting the tourism industry.
Synergies with Digital programme
Within the Digital Europe programme two leadership projects will assure the continuation of deployment activities linked to the #Digital4Culture strategy. The leadership project on digital transformation of the cultural heritage sector will continue to support European initiative launched during the European Year on Cultural Heritage 2018. The part of the programme focusing on digital skills has synergies with issues such as media literacy and film education.
Synergies with the EU research and innovation programme
Pooling resources in order to apply the latest technologies and stimulate new scientific approaches can greatly improve the understanding, preservation and dissemination of cultural heritage and in the cultural and creative sector in general. Potential synergies will need to be strengthened to reinforce the complementarity between these instruments and Creative Europe, so that the cultural and creative sectors fully benefit from the advances of European research.
In the Horizon Europe programme, the cluster on 'Inclusive, Resilient and Secure Societies' includes support research and innovation activities for the development of ICT technologies for the digitisation and preservation of tangible and intangible cultural heritage.
The 'Digital Industry' cluster foresees, within the Next Generation Internet area of interventions, research activities which are closely linked to the cultural and creative industries - e.g. Augmented reality/Virtual reality, immersive environments, human computer interfaces, new (social) media. It is also foreseen to continue efforts to achieve crossovers between the creative sectors, in particular the arts, and innovation in industry and society via the S+T+ARTS programme.
Synergies with the external action policies
Creative Europe and the international collaboration actions financed through the Union external programmes will complement each other.
The CULTURE strand intends to test shadowing schemes and other exchange initiatives with third countries for the European Capitals of Culture initiative or to open the Networks and Platforms schemes or the competition for the EU cultural Prizes to a limited extent to non-EU countries, to develop incentives to foster the inclusion of third country partners in projects where organisations in
the EU are in the lead and to support promotional efforts in strategically important markets and festivals outside the EU Member States for which there is currently no specific budget.
2. LEGAL BASIS, SUBSIDIARITY AND PROPORTIONALITY
Legal basis
The initiative will be based on Articles 167 and 173 of TFEU. Article 167 TFEU specifies the Union's competences in the cultural field and calls for action by the European Union to contribute to the flowering of the cultures of the Member States, while respecting their national and regional diversity and at the same time bringing the common cultural heritage to the fore and, if necessary, to support and supplement Member State action in the area listed by this provision. Article 173 TFEU states that the Union and the Member States shall ensure that the conditions necessary for the competitiveness of the Unions industry exist, including taking act ion to encourage an environment favourable to initiative and to the development of underta kings.
Subsidiarity (for non - e xcl usive competence)
The main EU added value comes from the strong transnational dimension of the programme as already demonstrated in the Creative Europe programme 2014 - 20 20. T he mid-term evaluation found the objectives and priorities of the programme to be overall coherent and complementary with those of national policies and programmes, thus respecting the principle of subsidiarity.
In particular, the multilateral transnational nature of Creative Europe provides a distinctive offer that is rarely matched by national funding, which tends to focus more on domestic activities and – to a lesser extent – on bilateral transnational cooperation. T his multilateral transnational focus is highly valued by stakeholders and beneficiaries as a unique element of Creative Europe. Only a few other existing international funds support transnational cooperation in the cultural and creative sectors at all and those that do are of significantly smaller scale.
Elements of EU added value of the programme are:
• The cross-border circulation of cultural and creative works, in particular audiovisual works reaching out to larger and more diverse audiences within the Union and beyond, to reflect European diversity;
• Economies of scale and critical mass which EU support can foster, creating a leverage effect
on additional funds; the reputational effect for programmes’ beneficiaries increases the
potential interest of partners and financial intermediaries and their trust in supported projects, facilitating access to additional funding; The creation of European networks and cross-border partnerships, which constitute the main and the most durable structuring elements of Creative Europe and support the overall capability of operators;
• Transnational networks also increase the capability of the culture and creative operators overall and especially for those working in niche fields and in the Member States where such capabilities are less developed;
• Result-oriented cross-border mobility for culture and creative operators leads to skills devel opm ent and increased sectors capacity;
• The mitigation of risks for cultural and creative organisations, which allows them to engage in projects with a European dimension and thus contributing to their overall economic strength;
• The programme has a strong societal focus; by supporting cultural and linguistic diversity, artistic and creative freedom as well as the development of a free, pluralistic and diverse
media environ ment, it thus contributes to European social well-being and a shared European identity;
• While film support schemes at national level focus primarily on the production of works, EU
support intervenes primarily on actions upstream (training, development) and downstream (distribution, promotion, exhibition) in order to ensure that European works circulate better across borders. As such, it promotes the free circulation of audiovisual media services enhanced by the Audiovisual Media Services Directive.
Proportionality
The proposal complies with the proportionality principle in that it does not go beyond the minimum required in order to achieve the stated objective at European level and what is necessary for that purpose.
Choice
of the instrument
The new Creative Europe 2021-2027 builds on the current Creative Europe Programme (2014-2020), which brought together two independent sub- programm es (MEDIA and Culture) within a single framework. This takes into account the specific features of the different sectors, their different target groups, and their particular needs. T his concerns in particular the opportunities of a common, cross-sectoral strand where innovation and experimentation will be in the focus.
Maintaining the well-established brand of the Creative Europe programme, including the MEDIA brand, will help to ensure continued engagement as well as the visibility of EU support.
3. RESULTS OF RETROSPECTIVE EVALUATIONS, STAKEHOLDER
CONSULTATIONS AND IMPACT ASSESSMENTS
Retrospective evaluations/fitness checks of existing legislation
The interim evaluation of the Creative Europe Programme and an ex-post evaluation of the three predecessor programmes - Culture, MEDIA 2007 and MEDIA Mundus - were commissioned by the European Commission in 2016 and delivered in the period May 2016 to August 2017. The evaluations of the Creative Europe and predecessor programmes pursued the following objectives:
• To assess the relevance, coherence, effectiveness, efficiency, sustainability and EU added value (hereafter the evaluation criteria) of Creati ve Europe a nd pre decessor program m es;
• To assess the contribution of Creative Europe to smart, sustainable and inclusive growth, to the new Com mission priorities and sector strategies;
• To assess the long-term results and impact of the predecessor programmes.
According to the evaluation, Creative Europe was found to address both the ongoing and emerging needs of the cultural and creative sectors. With adequate support from the programme, the beneficiaries from the cultural and creative sectors across Europe can take action in response to the digi tal shift to display their work internationally in the spirit of cultural diversity, in particular through innovation and the development of new business models enhancing their competitiveness.
Creative Europe is also largely coherent with other EU priorities, funding and support mechanisms relevant to the cultural and creative sectors, including both sector-specific opportunities and generic financing, business, and economic support for SMEs.
The Creative Europe Programme was also found to deliver on the strategic EU priorities: the Programme is making an important contribution towards the EU2020 employment target and the
priorities of the current Commission – stimulating investment for the purpose of job creation, and a deeper and fairer internal market with a strengthened industrial base, and also to sectoral strategies at EU-level, such as the objectives of the Digital Single Market.
The evaluation concluded that considering the size and range of the cultural and creative sectors at European level and the geographical areas covered by the evaluated Programmes, the size of the budgets of Creative Europe and its predecessor programmes were not sufficient to create major impact of a European scale and/or at sectoral level.
The evaluation showed further that the MEDIA sub-programme has effectively contributed to deepening the internal market. At the same time, MEDIA has grown in scope over the years without an equivalent increase in budget. Thus, the funding is spread too thinly across many priorities, weakening its potential impact.
Stakeholder
consultations
The open public consultation on EU funds in the area of values and mobility
The purpose of the public consultation on EU funds in the area of values and mobility was to collect the views of all interested parties on how to make the most of every euro of the EU budget. Consultations have taken place in the context of evaluations of existing EU financial programmes covering several policy areas, including on current performance and future challenges.
Hereafter some of the main results:
According to the respondents, 'Promoting European identity and common values' as well as 'promoting rights and equality' are important common policy challenges to be addressed in those programmes. For the Creative Europe programme, economic challenges and cultural diversity are more important than 'Promoting social inclusion and fairness'.
'Supporting innovation', 'Fostering European cultural diversity and cultural heritage', 'Promoting European identity and common values' are considered as policies that fully or fairly well address the challenges by half or more of the respondents. Additionally 52 % of the respondents9 experienced in the Creative Europe programme consider that the policy to 'Support competitiveness of European cultural and creative sectors' addresses the challenges fully or fairly well.
Around 80% of the respondents with some kind of experience in the above mentioned EU Programmes agree that these programmes add value to a large extent or to a fairly good extent to what Member States could achieve at national, regional and/or local levels.
The main obstacles identified by the respondents that could prevent the current programmes/funds from achieving their objectives are very similar regardless of the programme concerned: 'Lack of budget of the programmes to satisfy demand'; 'Insufficient support provided to small-scale stakeholders'; 'Lack of support to first-time applicants' are identified as the main three obstacles.
Respondents with some kind of experience in one or more of the EU Programmes, agree that 'the use of more simplified application forms', 'facilitating structured network and partnerships', 'facilitating funding for actions cutting across the sectors of action' as well as 'better coordination between different programmes/funds' are the main steps to be taken to simplify and reduce the administrative burdens for beneficiaries.
1839 replies were received from all over Europe.
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Other open public consultations
As part of the interim evaluation of the Creative Europe Programme, an open public consultation took place from 23 January to 24 April 2017. It included forward-looking questions regarding a possible successor programme to Creative Europe after 2020. Regarding the Creative Europe Culture and MEDIA sub-programmes, 90% and 80 % respectively of the respondents said that most of its priorities were still relevant or extremely relevant and more than a half agreed that the support provided by the Culture Sub-programme was either fully or partially complementary to national, EU or international funding. The most important opportunities mentioned by the survey respondents include shared cultural values, supporting cultural education, promoting cultural diversity, supporting internationalisation and promoting the significance of culture in society.
External expertise
In addition to the results of the public consultation, the Commission has taken into account the results of the interim evaluation of the current Creative Europe programme carried out in 2017-2018, feedback from various stakeholders, in particular in the context of the European Film Forum10 and a series of music stakeholder thematic meetings, findings of independent studies, as well as recommendations made by experts from Member States in the context of the Open Method of Coordination on culture and on the circulation of European films, and the structured dialogue with the sector over the period 2014-2018.
These various sources highlighted the many positive benefits of Creative Europe, but also identified areas for improvement and simplification. Whereas the current programme’s overarching objectives (promotion of cultural and linguistic diversity, reinforcement of the competitiveness of the cultural and creative sectors) remain broadly valid, there is a need for some further integration and expansion in order to better respond to the needs and shortfalls identified, which have only been exacerbated in recent years:
Increasing pressure on European cultural diversity and heritage, combined with growing dominance and circulation works from third countries, in particular the US,
Insufficient circulation and audience reach of European works,
Insufficient and fragile competitiveness of the cultural and creative sectors,
Lack of training and mobility opportunities for artists and creative professionals,
Lack of internationalisation of European culture,
Difficulties in reaching audiences and in ensuring social inclusion,
Limited adaptation and preparedness for the digital shift,
Lack of capacity building of professionals and the professionalization of individuals,
Specific challenges for the audiovisual industry in the context of an increasingly integrated Digital Single Market,
Specific sectorial challenges, in particular for the music sector, the book and publishing sector and the architecture & heritage sector.
Impact assessment
An impact assessment was prepared to support the “Creative Europe”, “Rights and Values” and “Justice” programmes. Although the Commission has decided that it is more appropriate to take
https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/european-film-forum
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forward this work through two separate programmes, the findings of the combined impact assessment remain relevant and are applicable to both the culture and MEDIA sub-programmes.
The Regulatory Scrutiny Board gave a positive opinion to such impact assessment on 20 April 2018.
At the same time, it highlighted that the links among the evaluations’ findings, the input from
stakeholders, the various objectives, and the rationale for the structure of the programme should be better explained. It also mentioned the need for additional guarantees that the monitoring and evaluation framework will allow for a robust and objective assessment of the level of success of the
programme.
This initiative takes into account the Board’s comments. It builds on the structure of the existing
Creative Europe programme and better reflects the feedback from stakeholders. For example, in response to a demand for more scalability, the new MEDIA strand will ensure the possibility to develop coordinated actions bringing together different parts of the audiovisual value chain.
Furthermore, the monitoring and evaluation system for the whole programme will be reinforced with appropriate impact and output indicators.
Simplification
In order to simplify the future programme compared with the current Creative Europe programme:
• Greater flexibility will be imbedded within the programme in order to adapt work programmes to unforeseen circum stances or new technological or societal develop ments, and reward performance;
• Greater effectiveness and efficiency will be sought by an increased use of framework partnership agreements and cascading grants to provide financial stability and facilitate access to smaller players. The already successful exchange of learning during the implementation of projects and the dissemination of results of this learning will be further enhanced;
• MEDIA will introduce incentives to reward results, related in particular to the capacity of reaching out to large audiences (e.g., audiovisual projects that achieve good box office results);
• The future music sectorial actions, as well as the translation scheme will include award criteria rewarding market success and efforts to reach audiences;
• Effective transitions arrangements will be designed to facilitate the association to the new programme of the third countries which were previously associated to Creative Europe
2014/2020;
• Greater clarity will be provided within its guidelines, and processes and procedures will involve systematic use of e-forms and e-reports and lighter reporting requirements. A coherent set of rules (single rulebook) will be introduced, while leaving room for differentiated approaches when needed.
Substantial simplification measures such as lump sums, unit costs and flat rates have already been successfully introduced by other programmes and could be introduced in the new Creative Europe. The specificity of the cultural sector and the individual character of the supported actions have made the calculation and application of lump sum and flat-rates challenging (outside the literary translation scheme) but where the calculation basis can be lightened it would constitute a welcome reduction of administrative burden for beneficiaries. Lump sums will continue to be used in MEDIA in order to simplify financial management, when appropriate. The methodology for calculating the lump sums will foresee a regular monitoring to ensure alignment with real costs.
The complexity of funding rules of the current programmes, as well as their heterogeneity represents an obstacle for applicants. The use of a single entry point for external users to participate in the grants
life cycle (i.e. a participant portal), including an overall grant management system has an important role to play in simplifying the access to the programme. MEDIA support will be made more effective by streamlining actions and their corresponding financial transactions; while CULTURE will continue focussing on the successful actions and tackle newly emerging market failures by specifically targeted sectoral action. Overall, stakeholders from the culture and creative sectors will be able to benefit of a 'one-stop-shop' approach.
Fundamental
rights
T his proposal is fully consistent with the Charter of fundamental rights of the EU. In particular, this proposal takes full acc ou nt of Arti cl e 11 (freedom of express ion) , 13 (freedom of the arts and science), 15 (freedom to choose an occupation and right to engage in work), 21 (non - d iscrim inati o n), 22 (cultural diversity), 23 (equality between women and men), 31 (f ai r a nd j ust working conditions) of the Charter.
4. BUDGETARY IMPLICATIONS
The financial envelope for the implementation of the Creative Europe Programme for the period 1 January 2021 to 31 Decem ber 2027 will amount to EUR 1 850 000 000 (current p rices).
Further details on the budgetary implications and the human and administrative resources required are provided in the Legislative and Financial Statement attached to this proposal.
5. OTHERELEMENTS
Implementation plans and monitoring, evaluation and reporting arrangements
The existing funding programmes, with the exception of activities in the field of news media, are mainly implemented through direct management through the Executive Agency for Education, Audiovisual and Culture (EACEA) because this is cost-effective, as confirmed by the mid-term evaluation. According to the existing evaluations, there is no need to change management mode.
• Implementation of MEDIA will be simplified and streamlined, for example, by grouping together beneficiaries and reducing the number of underlying grant contracts and payment transactions. Building on the on-going streamlining of the Distribution schemes, which represent 30 % of the MEDIA budget, the objective will be to reduce the overall MEDIA transactions by 30%, thus lowering administrative overheads and increasing the efficiency of the programme.
• Financial instruments providing guarantee and where needed equity type support to SMEs in the cultural and creative sectors will be implemented through the Invest EU Fund in indirect
management mode by delegation agreements with implementing partners in line with the Financial Regulation.
Evaluations will be carried out in line with parag ra phs 22 and 23 of the Interinstitutio nal Agreement of 13 April 2016 , where the three institutions confirmed that evaluations of existing legislation and policy should provide the basis for impact assessments of options for further action. The evaluations will assess the programmes effects on the ground based on the programme indicators/targets and a detailed analysis of the degree to which the programme can be deemed relevant, effective, efficient, provides enough EU added value and is coherent with other EU policies. They will include lessons
Interinstitutional Agreement between the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union and the European Commission on Better Law-Making of 13 April 2016 (OJ L 123, 12.5.2016, p.
1).
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learnt to identify any lacks/problems or any potential to further improve the actions or their results and to help maximise their exploitation/impact. Work on monitoring and evaluation will build on the revised performance monitoring framework developed for Creative Europe 2014/2020. It will bring together project and beneficiary data (collected via e-forms and e-reports) with additional contextual information from the European Audiovisual Observatory or targeted studies. Indicators will reflect realistically available information for each of the strands. Programme monitoring will take place both continuously (to respond timely to any unforeseen events or exceptional needs) and on a regularly planned basis (to report on key events such as calls for proposals, project reviews, coordination or dissemination events). T he monitoring will subsequently feed into:
• An annual monitoring report giving an overview of the progress achieved in meeting the objectives of the programme;
• A mid-term evaluation (to be performed no later than four years after the start of programme implementation);
• A final evaluation to be performed no later than two years after the end of the programming period.
These retrospective evaluations will be carried out in compliance with the latest applicable version of the Better Regulation guidelines (drawing also on its toolbox guidance and best practice), assess the programmes performance based on the key programme indicators/targets and a detailed analysis of the degree to which the programme can be deemed relevant, effective, efficient, provides enough EU added value and is coherent with other EU policies. They will include recommendations to address any lacks/problems identified or any potential to further improve the actions or their results and to help maximise the ir exp loitati on/i m pact.
Reporting to the European Parliament, Council and all other relevant EU institutions will take place regularly, through main monitoring and evaluation reports and a public scoreboard of the key programme indicators.
Subject to the result of the Cost Benefit Analysis that will be performed centrally for the next programming period, a significant part of the programme will likely be implemented by the Executive Agency for Education, Audiovisual and Culture under the supervision of the DGs responsible for the
programme.
Detailed explanation of the specific provisions of the proposal
This proposal will build on and continue the existing structure of the Creative Europe Programme with Culture, MEDIA and a reinforced cross-sectoral strand, which will allow for innovative action where cross-over activity provides added value. The architecture and objectives of Creative Europe were confirmed by the mid-term evaluation and other relevant feed-back. However, adaptati ons are needed to mirror economic, technological, societal and political developments as explained above.
For example, the new programme includes more focussed approaches for existing actions, but also newly developed elements.
The CULT URE strand will continue supporting transnational partnerships, networks and platforms and will develop sector specific initiatives, it will support cultural and creative operators in their efforts to reach audiences in Europe and beyond and it will develop elements which bring to the specific social benefits of culture for individuals and society to the fore. It will enhance existing special actions such as the European Capital of Culture and the Euro pean Heritage Label.
12 COM(2018) 248 final.
The MEDIA strand will aim at stimulating collaboration, and innovation in the creation and production of European audiovisual works, including through the nurturing of Europe’s talents. It will seek to enhance theatrical and online distribution and provide wider access across borders to European audiovisual works, including through innovative business models. It will promote European audiovisual works and support audience development across Europe and beyond. These priorities will be addressed through support to the creation, promotion, access, and dissemination of European works with the potential to reach large audiences within Europe and beyond, thereby supporting the implementation of the Audiovisual Media Services Directive. Furthermore, the MEDIA strand will provide for a more flexible approach, allowing for more cooperation across the different parts of the value-chain. It will also further promote the establishment of structured partnerships and networks to strengthen the overall competitiveness of Europe’s audiovisual sector and to reduce the administrative costs related to the managing of the programme.
The CROSS SECTORAL strand will promote cross-cutting activities spanning across audiovisual and other cultural and creative sectors. It will promote the knowledge of the programme and support the transferability of results. It will also encourage innovative approaches to content creation, access, distribution and promotion across cultural and creative sectors. It will promote cross cutting activities covering several sectors aiming at adjusting to the structural changes faced by the media sector, in particular as regards the free and pluralistic nature of the media environment, quality journalism and media literacy. Finally, it will set up and support programme desks to provide information about, and promote, the Programme in their country and to stimulate cross-border cooperation within the cultural and creative sectors.