Creative Europe programme 2014-2020

In accordance with Regulation (EU) No 1295/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing the Creative Europe Programme (2014 to 2020), the Commission presents a mid-term evaluation report on the programme based on an external and independent evaluation.

The programme is established for the period from 1 January 2014 to 31 December 2020.

As a reminder, Creative Europe comprises three strands: (i) MEDIA, which fosters the creation of audiovisual content and its access to European and global audiences, through all distribution channels; (ii) the Culture sub-programme covering culture sector initiatives, such as those promoting cross border cooperation, platforms, networking, and literary translation; (iii) a cross-sectoral strand, addressing all cultural and creative sectors, which includes a Guarantee Facility, supporting transnational policy cooperation.

This report covers all the programme's strands and the whole programming period.

Main findings and recommendations:

Relevance: the report states Creative Europe has addressed that key challenges of the cultural and creative sectors, namely fragmented markets, global competition and digital disruption as well as access to finance.

• MEDIA has enhanced the cross-border circulation of European films and audiovisual productions and has adapted to new market trends, including through the promotion of European works online. However, the report states that greater collaboration across the value chain and across borders would help professionals work together in response to the digital shift and globalisation. The Commission will report on the way in which the programme is reaping the opportunities offered by the digital transformation, from the creation of high value content to new distribution channels.
• The Culture sub-programme invests in culture to stimulate job creation and economic growth in regions, and the schemes under Creative Europe continue to be relevant to the objective of preserving cultural heritage in Europe. The Commission will assess whether small operators have access to financial support that matches the ambitions of growing outside their national markets.
• Under the Cross-sectoral strand, the strong market response to the launch the Guarantee in 2016, with three guarantee agreements signed in January 2017, shows the relevance of this instrument to the needs of the market. A top-up of EUR 60 million (from the European Fund for Strategic Investment), equivalent to 50% of the total budget, will be provided in 2017.

Coherence: whilst the Creative Europe programme complements other EU funding programmes, notably Erasmus+, and Horizon 2020, further efforts will be made to strengthen the coherence of Creative Europe with EU policy objectives such as the European Agenda for Culture and the Digital Single Market strategy by "mainstreaming" said policy objectives in the programme. In order to strengthen coherence with international and national funding sources the Commission will share more information with sector bodies from Member States to foster alignment with Creative Europe.

Effectiveness: Creative Europe has made an important contribution towards the EU2020 employment objective and the priorities of the current Commission: from 2014 to 2016, Creative Europe channelled EUR 544 million in funding to 2,580 entities in the cultural and creative sectors. It generated an estimated 3,000 jobs over the period. The evaluation shows that innovation and experimentation may be more effectively supported to boost innovative forms of collaboration and cross-over projects between creative sectors (e.g. film and fashion, architecture and virtual reality) to take advantage of the digital shift.

Efficiency: the report notes that considering the huge size of the audiovisual and cultural sectors at European level, the budget of Creative Europe is not sufficient to bring about a major impact at European scale. The efficiency of most of the schemes has improved or remained stable. The success rate declined from one programming period to another, reflecting the fact that the schemes are insufficiently funded compared to the potential interest they generate; a large number of good applications are rejected.

The evaluation pointed to the need to develop a comprehensive performance monitoring framework and the Commission states that it will address the challenges associated with the current monitoring framework.

Sustainability: the sustainability of the results lies primarily in the continuation of partnerships started under Creative Europe and the predecessor programmes. Under both MEDIA and Culture, collaboration between project partners is continued in some form beyond the projects’ lifecycle. The Commission will: 

• organise conferences and showcase events to disseminate results;
• consider a new award criterion to develop a plan of project outputs.

EU added value: Creative Europe has delivered EU added value, in particular by focusing on transnational cooperation while building on national support programmes. Thanks to MEDIA support, a significant number of European works have been watched beyond their national borders, thereby contributing to promoting the diversity of the European culture.

Under the Cross-sectoral strand, the Guarantee Facility is expected to have a leverage effect of 6, which is a very effective way of increasing access to finance. From an initial budget of EUR 121 million, over EUR 700 million in loans are expected to be passed on to SMEs and cultural operators across Europe To capitalise on the existing partnerships and networks, the Commission will monitor the development of new partnerships.