In the run-up to the European Council on 15 and 16 October 2026, the AEJ joined the call to increase the budget for AgoraEU. As the Union’s main financial instrument dedicated to safeguarding EU values, democracy, fundamental rights, civil society, culture, independent media and journalism, the AgoraEU budget must be increased by the Council, not cut. The EU must provide sufficient funding for the implementation of new policies in support of democracy, such as the European Shield for Democracy, the Compass for Culture, the Civil Society Strategy and the equality strategies.
On 10 October 2026, the Irish Presidency of the Council presented a second negotiating box for the future Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF). Whilst the overall reduction in the MFF is 8 per cent, the proposal provides for a 30 per cent cut (around €2.3 billion) to the AgoraEU budget line compared with the European Commission’s initial proposal.
This massive and disproportionate cut disregards the persistent calls from civil society to strengthen the future AgoraEU programme. Over 560 organisations from the cultural, media and civil society sectors across Europe have called for an increase in funding for the programme in a joint letter. The European Parliament, for its part, called in its interim report for a 25 per cent increase in the programme’s budget (€10.72 billion at current prices).
A coalition of 500+ organisations representing Europe’s cultural and creative sectors, independent media and journalism, civil society and democracy actors have sent an open letter to leaders of the EU institutions calling for a substantial increase in funding for the AgoraEU programme in the next long-term EU budget (2028-2034). Specifically, the organisations 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. As part of the ‘Future of Europe’ coalition, Culture Action Europe supported the drafting and coordination of the open letter.
Despite its strategic importance, the AgoraEU programme currently represents only ~0.43% of the next long-term EU budget, which includes funding for culture, independent media and journalism, audiovisual media, and civil society organisations across its pillars. The funding envisaged is insufficient to match the scale of the challenges facing these sectors. In the case of the cultural and creative sectors, the AgoraEU proposal currently envisages an allocation of approximately €260 million per year, which is equivalent to the annual expenditure of the Bibliothèque nationale de France.
As Europe faces mounting structural pressures, an increased budget for the programme is essential. Geopolitical instability, increasing inequalities and widespread precarity, coordinated attacks against civil society and fundamental rights, and declining trust in democratic institutions all reinforce the need for robust, reliable funding in the AgoraEU programme.
Funding opportunities for culture are increasingly oversubscribed and under-funded, artistic freedom is under attack, and widespread poor working conditions as well as lacking fair remuneration all contribute to the challenges facing the cultural and creative sectors. Reliable, structured funding for culture is therefore vital to nurturing the cultural ecosystem. Both the Ask, Pay, Trust and Cultural Deal for Europe campaigns call for at least 2% of funding to be allocated towards culture in the next long-term EU budget to support this goal. In order to fund and defend artistic freedom, confront the challenges facing the cultural and creative sectors, and place culture at the heart of EU decision-making, a strong, well-resourced AgoraEU programme is vital at the European level.
The 500+ organisations also call for digital fines to top up the general budget of the AgoraEU programme as an additional funding source. At a time when Europe’s cultural ecosystems, information space and civic participation are under sustained pressure, reinforced funding for the AgoraEU programme is more important than ever to support EU social and democratic infrastructure.
