Adoption of the 2022 Creative Europe Work Programme

Today, the Commission has adopted the 2022 work programme of Creative Europe, which will be followed by the launch of the relevant calls for proposals. With a budget of around €385 million, nearly €100 million more compared to 2021, Creative Europe strengthens its support to creative and cultural partners taking due account of the challenges resulting from the COVID-19 crisis and the growing global competition.

What will be supported?

Culture strand

• European cooperation projects: calls under this flagship action will be launched in February 2022 and target all cultural and creative sectors to foster transnational cooperation, exchanges of practices, joint production and innovation;
• Performing arts and cultural heritage: three new calls will be published to support the music sector through Music Moves Europe, the performing arts sector through the Perform Europe initiative and cultural heritage through quality support to the European Heritage label action;
• Books and literature: Creative Europe will support the translation of literary works and the development of publishing partnerships, as well as the European Book Week, an initiative to foster reading among young people;
• Prizes and initiatives: Creative Europe will continue supporting the organisation of four yearly European EU Prizes in the fields of literature, music, architecture and cultural heritage, in the form of grants, as well as the European Capitals of Culture initiative.

MEDIA strand

• Audiovisual audiences: Creative Europe MEDIA will provide new support for networks of festivals to complement the support given to individual festivals under the 2021 Work Programme. The programme will continue supporting a network of European Cinemas, European video on demand networks and pan-European film distribution strategies;
• Audiovisual business: a new MEDIA 360° scheme launching in 2022 will build on synergies within leading industry fora, while support will be renewed for talent and skills, markets and networking, film distributors and sales agents and innovative tools/business models;
• Audiovisual content: new support is available to develop video games and immersive content. Creative Europe continues supporting co-development, slate and mini-slate development, as well as TV and online content production;
• Audiovisual policy and communication: through regulatory dialogue, sharing analysis and data on trends, Creative Europe intends to promote a holistic European audiovisual policy, relying on the European Audiovisual Observatory, the European Regulators Group for Audiovisual Media Services. The programme plans to consult stakeholders through through the European Film Forum and to reach audiences through the Lux Audience Award;
• Media Invest: MEDIA will support an equity investment platform by blending MEDIA funds with InvestEU funds to guarantee private investments in the audiovisual sector;

Cross-sectoral strand

• Creative Innovation Labs: Creative Europe will continue encouraging innovative approaches to content creation, distribution, and promotion across different sectors, which can contribute also to the objectives of the New European Bauhaus;
• Support to the news media sector: the new call Journalism Partnerships will focus on collaborative business transformation and/or collaborative journalistic projects to help the wider European news media sector become more sustainable and resilient;
• Media freedom and media literacy: in 2022 Creative Europe will provide a more stable support to promote a diverse and pluralistic media environment.