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Support for culture in the Recovery & Resilience facility - Joint letter


UNIC, alongside 20 other organisations from across Europe's creative and cultural sectors (CCS) has co-signed a letter to MEPs voicing support for certain amendments tabled on the draft Report on a Recovery and Resilience Facility.

Dear Member of the European Parliament,  

We are writing to you as organisations from across the cultural and creative sector, to ask you to support a number of amendments tabled on the draft Report on a Recovery and Resilience Facility.  

You will find the compiled amendments in the attached document, and we list them below. 

It's been said many times before, but it bears repeating again: the cultural and creative sector was one of the first and hardest hit by the crisis, and will be one of the last to come out of it. As the economy is slowly restarting, the culture sector is still very much in limbo.  

These amendments are in line with the European Parliament’s recent call, in its Resolution on the cultural recovery of Europe, for at least 2% of the Recovery and Resilience Facility to be earmarked for the cultural and creative sector.  

While the cultural and creative sector has rightly been identified by the Commission as one of 14 ecosystems which are the hardest hit by the Covid crisis, we need confirmation that our sector will be prioritised in the EU's recovery plan. More clarity and guarantees are needed to ensure the sector can benefit appropriately from the plan’s various instruments.  

We ask you to support the following amendments which specifically call for at least 2% of the Recovery and Resilience Facility to be earmarked to support the cultural and creative sector:  

-Amendment 151 (Nienass, Kammerevert & co) - Recital 4a (new) 

-Amendment 153 (Kammerevert, Negrescu & co) - Recital 4b (new) 

-Amendment 263 (Mavrides, Gardiazabal Rubial, Fernández) - Recital 11d (new) 

-Amendment 861 (Kammerevert, Negrescu & co) - Article 14 paragraph 2 

-Amendment 864 (Nienass, Kammerevert & co) - Article 14 paragraph 2 

We also ask you to support the following amendments which call more generally for the EU and member states to invest in the cultural and creative sector as part of the EU’s Recovery and Resilience Facility, and for the sector to be explicitly referred to in the scope of application of the Facility:  

Amendment 135 (Kammerevert, Negrescu & co) - Recital 4 

Amendment 152 (Kammerevert, Negrescu & co) - Recital 4a (new) 

Amendment 171 (Kammerevert, Negrescu & co) - Recital 6 

Amendment 228 (Ressler, Sokol) - Recital 10 

Amendment 279 (Molnár, Belka, Heinäluoma, Angel) - Recital 12a (new) 

Amendment 303 (Ressler, Sokol) - Recital 14 

Amendment 344 (Kammerevert, Negrescu & co) - Recital 16 

Amendment 403 (Ressler, Sokol) - Recital 21 

Amendment 592 (Molnár, Belka, Heinäluoma, Angel) - Article 3 paragraph 1 

Amendment 593 (Mavrides, Gardiazabal Rubial, Fernández) - Article 3 paragraph 1 

Amendment 605 (Kammerevert, Negrescu & co) - Article 3 paragraph 1 

Justification:  

The crisis had, and still has, a disastrous impact on the livelihood of hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of creators and cultural professionals and on the ability of all cultural enterprises - especially micro, small and medium sized - to stay in business. The commission's own figures show that the sector will experience turnover losses of around 80% in the second quarter of 2020, 50% in the third quarter, and 30% in the fourth quarter.  

As our sector is made up predominantly of – but not limited to – micro-businesses, self-employed workers and freelancers, with a higher average percentage of youth employment than most sectors, it is particularly vulnerable in times of crisis. Which is why the cultural and creative sector as a whole call for a swift and massive response at EU, national and sector level.

The recovery and resilience plans should duly take into consideration our sector, which usually receives little attention in the context of the European Semester but requires appropriate support, especially now as it is suffering considerably from the measures taken to contain the pandemic.

Yours sincerely,  

The undersigned organisations:

CEPI – European Audiovisual Production 

ECCD – European Coalitions for Cultural Diversity 

ECSA – European Composer and Songwriter Alliance

EIBF – European and International Booksellers Federation 

EMC – European Music Council 

EMEE – European Music Exporters Exchange  

Eurocinema – Association of cinema and television producers

Europa Distribution - The European Network of Independent Film Publishers and Distributors

FEP – Federation of European Publishers

FIAD – The International Federation of Film Distributors’ Associations

GESAC – European Grouping of Societies of Authors and Composers 

IETM – International Network for Contemporary Performing Arts

IFPI – International Federation of the Phonographic Industry

IMPALA – The Independent Music Companies Association 

IMPF – Independent Music Publishers International Forum

Liveurope – The live music platform for new European talent 

SAA – Society of Audiovisual Authors

UNIC – International Union of Cinemas

Download the letter in full here

Supported amendments available in full here.


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