Background information and supporting evidence:

The EU's Creative Europe programme plays a key role in strengthening Europe’s Cultural and Creative Sectors (CCS). With a current budget of €2.44 billion for the funding cycle 2021–2027, the programme supports thousands of projects and professionals promoting cross-border cooperation, artistic mobility, and cultural diversity, and boosting the economic potential of the CCS.

The programme is open both to EU member states and to third countries. This makes the UK eligible for joining. Currently, 41 countries participate in Creative Europe, including Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein, Ukraine and Tunisia.

The UK successfully participated in the programme until the end of its EU membership. It was a major contributor to and beneficiary of Creative Europe. During its last complete funding cycle (2014–2019), a total of 609 projects involving UK organisations received €203 million. Via the programme’s MEDIA strand, 196 UK films were supported with €32 million of funding via European distributors, generating a revenue of €575 million. The combined support directly to the UK was €100 million. Its benefits were extensive: the positive impact of UK participation was significant for both sides – be it on international partnerships and networks, including international co-productions, on creativity and innovation, on audience and cultural development, or on knowledge, skills and capacity development.

The UK’s withdrawal from Creative Europe weakened the UK’s CCS and significantly reduced opportunities for European cultural cooperation. Joining Creative Europe would give UK CCS organisations and professionals significantly facilitated access to cross-border funding and cultural exchange. Furthermore, it has the potential to unlock technical conversations that have barely advanced in the last few years, such as those regarding touring.

Since the UK's decision to leave the EU in 2016, CCS organisations and experts from both the EU and the UK have repeatedly called for closer cooperation and full participation in European culture programmes, including Creative Europe.

Most recently, in November 2025, more than 200 stakeholders from the Cultural and Creative Sectors in the EU and the UK co-signed a Policy Recommendations document that demanded from the EU and UK institutions to "commit to full UK participation in the successor to Creative Europe within AgoraEU – the proposed EU funding programme for 2028-2034 – to enable structured, multilateral and efficient transnational cooperation, creative collaboration and innovation, and explore the potential of UK participation in the current Creative Europe programme in 2027 as a pilot phase". These Policy Recommendations had been developed at the inaugural Forum on EU-UK Cultural & Media Relations in October 2025.

Importantly, the value of Creative Europe is recognised across the UK’s nations:

• ​​The Culture, Media and Sport Committee of the House of Commons published a report on British film and high-end television calling on the UK to join Creative Europe;
• The Welsh cabinet has called on the UK to access Creative Europe;
• The Scottish government has also called for “full reassociation to the Creative Europe programme”;
• The Northern Ireland Assembly Research and Information Service acknowledged that artists based in NI had used to count on Creative Europe funding to support their work.

According to sources within the European Commission, it is technically possible for the UK to join the Creative Europe programme from 2027, provided that the UK government formally declares its interest in doing so to the European Commission by circa May 2026.

Finally, this petition also recognises the broader political context of an increasingly complex world. The EU and the UK have to stand together to defend our common values and interests. Joining the Creative Europe programme would be an important step in this direction.