This publication was developed by Culture Action Europe. It offers an overview of the place of culture in the National Recovery and Resilience Plans (NRRPs) of the Member States of the European Union.
In 2020, as an immediate response to the pandemic crisis the EU institutions adopted an one-of-a-kind stimulus package, called Next Generation EU (NGEU). It was made to boost the recovery of the continent. The core component of this envelope, called Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) is channeled to EU Member States between 2021 and 2026 to better cope with the pandemic fallout. It also intends to make European economies and societies more sustainable, resilient and better equipped for the green and digital transitions.
This overview analyses what types of investments and reforms contained in the NRRPs directly support Europe’s cultural ecosystem. Indeed, it has been among the most affected by the long crisis and the subsequent containment measures.
It follows up on the call by the European cultural and creative sectors, and backed by the European Parliament, to specifically earmark at least 2% of each NRRP for culture.
This report solely analyses the share of budget dedicated to the cultural sectors in each member states’ NRRP.
The report does not track regular budgets from the Ministries of Culture or local governments. Therefore, these figures should be taken as indicators of a political will to support and sustain (or not) the cultural sectors during the crisis. Additionally, to look at the types of funding each member states’ NRRP proposes would actually be more revealing.
Of course, some types of funding are encouraging, such as the ones which deal with infrastructural change and green energy funds. Yet, Live DMA deplores that most of the National Recovery budget goes to institutions and the tourism or heritage sectors.
Indeed, Live DMA’s latest COVID-19 data report shows that it is mainly the private commercial and private not-for-profit organisations which struggle during this crisis. More funding for the private, small and independent organisations of the live music sector is needed to sustain the cultural diversity of the European music scenes.
