On the 15th March this year, the campaign « 70 cents for culture » was launched by the European Cultural Foundation (ECF) and the European Forum for the Arts and Heritage (EFAH). The campaign aims to secure an increase in the EU Culture Budget for the years 2007-13, from the current level of €34 million a year to a more realistic budget of €315 million. Although this would be a massive increase on the current budget, that is because the current level of EU funding for culture is tiny. It costs just 7 cents per EU citizen per year, 0.03% of the total EU budget. The revised budget would comprise 0.27 percent of the EU’s funds at a cost of just 70 cents per citizen per year.
The increase in budget is seen as especially important at a time when Europe is expanding. According to the EU president José Manuel Barroso “The questions of what Europe can do for culture and what culture can do for Europe have acquired a new sense of urgency.” The new €315 million culture budget would, among other things, go towards encouraging cross-border cultural exchanges, boosting the EU’s cultural foreign policy, and enhancing the EU’s cultural competitiveness.
The campaign has attracted significant support from all four party groupings in the EU Parliament. You can register your support for the campaign by signing the manifesto here.
For further information on the campaign you can visit the ECF and EFAH websites.
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