The European Union should allocate more money to a key cultural programme that is vital to the bloc’s security, new Culture Commissioner Glenn Micallef has said.
In an exclusive interview with POLITICO, the youngest of the 26 new commissioners said the Creative Europe programme, a €2.4 billion initiative to support Europe’s creative and audiovisual industries, should be expanded in the next seven-year EU budget.
Negotiations on the budget, which runs from 2028 to 2034, are heating up, with calls to spend more money on defence and strengthen the bloc’s weakening competitiveness. But funding for culture should not be overlooked, Micallef argued. He also said:
“Culture is part and parcel of our work on democracy and our work on strengthening the Union, including our security in Europe. This is a program that needs to be strengthened and I will continue to make the case for that.”
Attacks on cultural institutions and artists occur in many European countries, Micallef noted, citing examples in Slovakia, Bulgaria and Portugal.
He refrained from discussing the situation in each of those countries, but said the European Commission could intervene if necessary – including through its annual law enforcement reports. He also added:
“I want to focus on promoting this value of artistic freedom and artistic expression, and we will defend it, of course, wherever there are attacks.”
