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IMPALA welcomes 2.2 billion euro budget commitment for next phase of Creative Europe
By Chris Cooke | Published on Tuesday 15 December 2020
The pan-European trade group for the independent music community, IMPALA, has welcomed the news that a 2.2 billion euro budget has been agreed for the European Union’s Creative Europe programme, which seeks to support the cultural and creative sectors across Europe.
The next seven year phase of the initiative will also include specific objectives in the music space for the first time. Music projects have been eligible for funding since Creative Europe originally launched in 2014, though there weren’t funds specifically allocated to music, and such projects made up a small percentage of the total budget spent.
A specific music strand will be added in the next phase, with Creative Europe building on work done since 2018 via the separate and smaller music-specific EU programme Music Moves Europe.
Confirming that the European Parliament and all the member states of the EU had now agreed to the new Creative Europe budget, the EU’s Commissioner For Innovation, Research, Culture, Education And Youth, Mariya Gabriel, said: “I welcome the political agreement on the new Creative Europe programme. The programme has been critical for promoting Europe’s cultural diversity as well as the competitiveness of cultural and creative sectors. Now it has been modernised to better equip these sectors to face today’s challenges, including those brought about by the pandemic”.
Welcoming the news from a music perspective, IMPALA Executive Chair Helen Smith added: “The combination of an increased budget and a new focus on music opens up many opportunities in terms of funding for music projects. Building on all the work done with Music Moves Europe, which was designed to lay the ground for larger-scale support for the sector under Creative Europe, the EU should be able to show renewed ambition for music and hit the ground running”.
