The Council reached a partial general approach on the proposal for a Regulation establishing the "Creative Europe" Programme for the period 2014-2020 and bringing together the three current independent programmes Culture, MEDIA and MEDIA MUNDUS. The "Creative Europe" programme has a two-fold objective: (i) promoting cultural diversity and (ii) enhancing the competitiveness of the cultural, audiovisual and creative sectors.
The Commission proposes a budget of EUR 1.8 billion, of which 15% would be allocated to the cross-sectoral strand, 30% to the culture strand and 55% to the MEDIA strand.
Guarantee Facility of MEDIAs successor: the aim of this second partial approach (for the aim of the first approach, please refer to the summary of the Council debate of 10/05/2012) is to reach agreement on the provisions relating to the Guarantee Facility, aimed at improving access to financing for SMEs operating in the cultural and creative sectors.
The main outstanding issues concern:
- the funding of commercial cultural projects;
- indicators;
- implementing provisions.
The budget proposed by the Commission for the Facility is EUR 200 million.
The Cypriot Presidency has focused its work on the provisions regarding the Guarantee Facility, introducing a number of changes to the proposal in order to ensure geographical balance among Member States and a balanced sectoral representation, which is of great importance especially for smaller Member States and Member States with restricted linguistic areas. The structure and the tasks of the Guarantee Facility have also been specified, as well as the roles of all the players involved.
A new provision was also introduced specifying that the annual work programme for the Facility should include three sets of criteria and the annual allocation to the European Investment Fund. The Commission opposes this change, arguing that the level of detail requested is excessive and will unnecessarily complicate implementation.
Reporting obligations: the Commissions reporting obligations are enhanced by introducing mid-term and final reports that the Commission will have to establish and submit to both the EP and the Council. The Commission considers that the reinforced reporting obligation will increase the administrative burden and the cost of implementing the Programme.
Lastly, it should be noted that the rapporteur of the European Parliament's Culture and Education Committee (Silvia COSTA S&D, IT) presented her draft report on 8 October 2012. The vote in the committee is scheduled to take place on 18 December 2012.