Secure a future for cultural life in Europe
Following the open letter published by ENCATC and 1110 pan-European networks on 30 October 2020 “Make culture central in the EU recovery”, the group comes together again to reiterate their call to the national governments and the European Commission. In the second open letter published today by the group, coordinated by Culture Action Europe, the European cultural community call on the Member States and the European Commission to secure a future for culture and cultural life in Europe.
Culture
must be included in each and every National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP)
that EU countries should present to the European Commission before the 30 April 2021 deadline. The representatives of the European cultural ecosystem urge
governments to dedicate at least 2% of the Recovery Fund to culture and put culture as a
priority sector when using funds from Next Generation EU. In addition,
110 cultural networks call on the Member States to engage with the
representatives of their cultural communities and civil society organisations
in the design and implementation of the NRRPs. “Long-term structural support to
rebuild the European cultural ecosystem needs to be co-developed, involving all
relevant stakeholders, both public and private”, - reads the letter.
Ensuring
that culture is explicitly included in the NRRPs will help secure both the
future of the sector and its important contribution to Europe’s future. Reinvigorating
the cultural ecosystem not only offers hope to millions of workers who saw
their jobs endangered by the pandemic, it can also create new meaning and
purpose to all Europeans and the European project.