The EU Culture Programme was set up to stimulate the mobility of artists and art. The new Culture Programme offers opportunities to a wide variety of participants, ranging from cultural organisations to enterprises in the culture sector, and administrations to networks, thus enabling cooperation in a wide range of formats.
The Culture Programme’s general objective is to help enhance the culture shared by Europeans. This is based on a common cultural heritage, developed through cultural cooperation between the creators, cultural players and cultural institutions of the countries taking part in the programme, with a view to encouraging the emergence of European citizenship.
The Culture Programme aims to facilitate mutual understanding, stimulate creativity and contribute to the mutual enrichment of European cultures. The Culture 2007-2013 Programme not only sets ambitious political goals for the unity of diversity through mobility, but also contains a new methodology of consultation and partnership, as the programme attempts to reach out to
stakeholders for help in implementing the programme.
The three specific objectives of the programme are to:
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Promote the transnational mobility of cultural players;
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Encourage the transnational circulation of artistic and cultural works and products; and
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Encourage intercultural dialogue.
Projects must attain at least one of these objectives. Moreover, when awarding grants, particular attention is paid to actions that meet two of the three specific objectives of the programme.
The Culture Programme consists of three components:
Support for cultural actions such as multiannual cooperation projects, cooperation measures and "special" actions to help raise the visibility of the Community cultural action within and beyond the EU;
Support for bodies active at European level in the field of culture, such as organisations that pursue an aim of general European interest in culture or an objective that is part of EU policy in the area; and
Support for analyses and collection and dissemination of information and for maximising the impact of projects in cultural cooperation
The Commission recently proposed linking the cultural sector more closely to the Lisbon Strategy, through three major objectives that form a "common" cultural strategy for the European institutions, the EU Member States, and the cultural and creative sector:
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Promotion of cultural diversity and intercultural dialogue;
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Promotion of culture as a catalyst for creativity within the framework of the Lisbon Strategy; and
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Promotion of culture as a vital element in relations with countries outside the European Union.
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