AgoraEU: Council agrees partial mandate on new programme to support culture

The Council has agreed its position on key elements of the new AgoraEU programme supporting culture, media, and civil society in Europe.

This programme will be part of the next multiannual financial framework (MFF) covering the period 2028 to 2034.

The AgoraEU programme aims to foster shared values such as democracy, equality and the rule of law. It will support Europe’s cultural diversity and its cultural and creative sectors, including the audiovisual and news media sectors, as well as safeguarding artistic and media freedom and boosting active citizenship. Today’s negotiating position is “partial” because it excludes financial and horizontal issues. These are currently being discussed as part of the negotiations on the MFF.

Today’s agreement marks an important step towards strengthening Europe’s cultural and democratic fabric. With AgoraEU, we are equipping our cultural and creative sectors with the tools they need to thrive, while safeguarding the values that underpin our Union, from artistic freedom to active citizenship.

Dr Vasiliki Kassianidou, Deputy Minister for Culture, Republic of Cyprus

The AgoraEU programme

The AgoraEU programme aims to strengthen culture, media and civic participation in order to boost the resilience of European democracies. It builds on the achievements of existing programmes such as Creative Europe and the Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values (CERV) programme.

The programme is structured around three main strands:

  • Creative Europe – Culture, which will contribute to cross-border cultural creativity and cooperation
  • MEDIA+, which will enhance the diversity and competitiveness of the audiovisual and videogames industries, as well as supporting free and independent journalism and news media
  • CERV+, which will promote fundamental rights and equality, prevent discrimination, enhance democratic participation, and uphold the rule of law

The Council’s position

The Council’s position on the AgoraEU regulation maintains the ambition of the Commission’s proposal while providing additional clarification on key aspects of the legislative text, strengthening the role of member states, and accommodating national differences in areas such as audiovisual media.

Cultural and creative sectors 

The Council has introduced an updated definition of ‘cultural and creative sectors’, which sets out the main qualities of the sectors covered by the ‘Creative Europe – Culture’ strand of the programme and provides a non-exhaustive list of relevant sectors.

To help foster action for all cultural and creative sectors covered by the programme, the Council’s position provides for a more targeted approach to sectors such as music, book publishing and libraries, which have shared needs and face specific challenges. Examples of targeted actions include cultural prizes and peer learning activities.  

The Council’s mandate also adds more emphasis to the dual nature of the cultural and creative sectors, recognising both their intrinsic artistic value and their economic contribution to growth, innovation and competitiveness, while promoting cultural diversity, strengthening the media and information space, and supporting an inclusive, rights-based and democratic society.

AgoraEU Desks

The Commission’s proposal provides for the creation of ‘desks’, independent bodies that can be set up by each EU country to offer guidance and assistance on funding opportunities and cross-border collaboration.

The Council’s mandate refines and expands this concept, renaming the desks ‘AgoraEU Desks’, specifying the kind of support the desks will offer, and ensuring that they are adequately resourced. It also describes their tasks, such as promoting the AgoraEU programme, providing training to applicants, and exchanging good practices.

A level playing field for audiovisual media

Bearing in mind the different conditions in EU member states, the Council’s mandate clarifies that the implementation of the ‘audiovisual’ objective should take into account the specificities of each country in areas such as production and distribution, access to content, market size, and cultural and linguistic diversity. The aim is to encourage greater participation and collaboration from all countries, regardless of their audiovisual capacities, thus contributing to a more level playing field.

Supporting creativity in the digital era

Reflecting the ongoing impact of digital advances on the cultural and creative sectors, and particularly that of artificial intelligence (AI), the Council’s position stresses that human creativity remains irreplaceable. It specifies that the ethical, sustainable and responsible use of AI and other innovative tools should be promoted, for example by encouraging the protection of cultural and creative data.

The mandate also stipulates that AgoraEU should support the use of digital technologies in cultural and creative sectors, including the development of audiovisual and media platforms and technologies that promote cultural and linguistic diversity and democracy.

AgoraEU Committee

In order to strengthen the role of EU countries in the implementation phase of the AgoraEU programme, the Council’s mandate provides for the creation of an ‘AgoraEU Committee’. The committee will be made up of representatives from each of the member states and will meet to discuss and vote on concrete issues relating to the different strands of the programme.

Next steps

The partial negotiating position approved today is the Council's mandate to start negotiations with the European Parliament on the AgoraEU regulation. The decision on the programme’s budget for 2028-2034 will depend on the final agreement on the next MFF.

Background

The proposed regulation establishing the new AgoraEU programme for culture, media and civil society was published on 16 July 2025 in the context of the multiannual financial framework 2028-2034. It brings together €8.6 billion in funding with the aim of:

  • promoting cultural and linguistic diversity and heritage
  • increasing the competitiveness of the cultural and creative sectors
  • safeguarding artistic and media freedom
  • protecting and promoting equality, active citizenship, rights and values

Since the proposed regulation is part of the package of proposals linked to the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), all the provisions in the text with budgetary implications or corresponding to the elements that form part of horizontal negotiations on the MFF have been bracketed and are therefore excluded from the partial general approach pending further progress on the MFF. These provisions include recital 4 (financial envelope), recital 30 (implementation in accordance with the European Competitiveness Fund InvestEU Instrument), recital 31 (budgetary guarantee or financial instrument), recital 35 (accordance with the Performance Regulation), recital 40 (duration), Article 1 (duration), Article 11 (budget) and Article 15 (budgetary guarantee or financial instrument).