EU culture director in the spotlight over Creative Europe proposal

She will be joined in the session by:

• Yvette Vaughan Jones, Executive Director of Visiting Arts; and
• Agnieszka Moody, Director of MEDIA Desk UK.

The Committee first considered the Creative Europe proposal at the beginning of the year, and decided to hold two oral evidence sessions to investigate further. The Government are opposed to the Commission's proposed budget increase for the proposal. In 2011 the UK received the largest funding allocation (€5.7million) of any Member State under the Culture programme and in 2010 it also received €8.7 million under the MEDIA programme in 2011. Domestic funding for the creative industries in the UK has fallen by 6.9% during the current financial year and is projected to fall by a total of 15% between 2011 and 2015.

The witnesses will be questioned on issues including:

• whether the EU can continue to add value to the UK's cultural and creative sectors, economically, socially and culturally;
• in what way UK organisations benefit from the receipt of EU funds and how this would be affected by any reduction or increase in this source of funding;
• how low levels of stakeholder engagement regarding the Creative Europe proposal could be increased; and
• their views on the proposed merger of the Culture and MEDIA programmes into Creative Europe. 

The evidence session will take place at 10.00am on Thursday 22 March in Committee Room 2 of the House of Lords.

The evidence session is open to media and the public. Please allow time for security screening.

The evidence session will also be broadcast live on Parliament TV.