AgoraEU is the European Commission’s proposal to bring together funding for culture, the audiovisual sector and media (currently under Creative Europe) with support for fundamental rights, democratic participation, and anti‑discrimination efforts (currently under the CERV programme). The signatories welcome the creation of this unified framework but stress that the baseline budget does not match the scale of today’s challenges.
The signatories strongly support the position of the European Parliament to increase the budget allocation of the AgoraEU programme and call on the EU institutions to ensure that AgoraEU remains a priority during negotiations on the next long-term EU budget.
Despite its strategic importance, the AgoraEU programme currently represents only ~0.43% of the next long-term EU budget. The letter emphasises that culture, media and civil society form essential democratic infrastructure, especially in a moment marked by geopolitical instability, rising inequalities, declining trust in institutions, and increasing threats from information manipulation and anti‑democratic actors. Despite their importance, these sectors face significant financial pressure:
- Creative Europe calls remain heavily oversubscribed, with very low success rates.
- Journalism revenues continue to decline, leaving trusted information ecosystems at risk.
- Civil society organisations across the EU report severe funding shortages at a time when they are increasingly relied upon to defend fundamental rights and democratic norms.
The organisations therefore call for reinforced, long‑term investment in AgoraEU’s budget. They argue that stronger funding is essential to protect Europe’s cultural and media ecosystems, support grassroots democratic participation, and ensure territorial balance and accessibility across Member States. They also encourage EU institutions to consider additional revenue streams, including fines collected under the Digital Services Act, Digital Markets Act and AI Act, as well as funds freed up under the Rule of Law Conditionality Mechanism.
The letter concludes by urging the Council and the Commission to work closely with the European Parliament to secure an ambitious final budget for AgoraEU to achieve one capable of strengthening Europe’s cultural vitality, democratic resilience and social cohesion in the years ahead.
- Read the full letter
- Sign the letter - If your organisation also believes in the need for a substantial increase in funding for the AgoraEU programme, complete the form below to become a signatory of the letter.
