June 29, 2020

The letter to Europe’s leaders, signed by 94 signatories including IFPI, states that the sector “needs strong and systemic support measures to recover from this crisis”.

The letter claims that it is “now well understood” that the cultural and creative world is “one of the first and hardest hit by the crisis”. The letter quotes the Commission’s own estimates, showing that some parts of the sector, which accounts for €509 billion in value added to GDP and over 12 million full-time jobs, are expected to lose up to 80% of their turnover in the 2nd quarter of 2020.

The signatories note that the sector has “a higher than average percentage of self-employed workers, freelancers, micro-businesses and youth employment, which makes us particularly vulnerable in times of crisis”. They observe that, as the European economy is slowly restarting, it is far from business as usual. Cultural actors are gradually resuming their activities, but all have to implement strict safety rules, which means they will not be operating at full capacity for the foreseeable future and are therefore facing challenging economic decisions. “From individual creators and creative workers all the way to big production and media companies, the whole value chain is impacted”.

The letter states that the recovery package announced by the Commission on 27 May does “not reflect the reality of the cultural and creative sector, despite the encouraging messages by the Commission and the strong position taken by the European Parliament”. In fact, the signatories say, the proposal on the table falls “way short” of the sector’s expectations.

To bring the EU’s support for the sector to a level that is commensurate with its contribution to the EU’s economy and its citizens’ wellbeing, the signatories call on Member States and the European Parliament:

• to push for a substantial increase of the Creative Europe budget. The signatories “fully support the European Parliament’s proposal for a budget of €2.8 billion”; and
• to guarantee that the entire sector can “benefit appropriately from the recovery plan’s various instruments”.

The letter concludes: “Let’s invest in culture to show the EU’s #NextGeneration that we really care about their future!” To read the letter in full, click here.