The Realities of the Economic Crisis in the EU – What are the Impacts for the Cultural Sector?
The words “austerity program” have become the most repeated collocation across all of Europe. Major cuts to culture are a reality in many European governments and relaxed Europeans are being forced to adopt this new word “austerity”. What are the actual impacts?
France and Germany
France and Germany are the only two countries that do not plan on cutting cultural funding. Surprisingly the budget for the Ministry in France has increased by 0.9% compared to 2011, for a total increase of €7.4 million. An example of their spending is the opening of the Palais de Tokyo that just took place on April 20th in Paris, and the former 1937 World Expo Pavillion was reconstructed to become the biggest arts centre in Europe (it’s bigger than 3 soccer fields!) France is very fortunate when we compare their budget to the ones in the UK, where the arts council was cut nearly 30%, or the Netherlands where the cultural budget was cut by 25%. Germany increased their national cultural budget by 5.1% for 2012.
Netherlands
The centre-right coalition plans to cut the cultural budget by 25% (€200 million) by January 2013. Taxes on tickets for cultural events will rise from 6 to 19%, although sporting events, zoo and circuses are being exempted.
Denmark
Denmark is seeing their cultural budget cut by 5% this year.
Britain
The Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has seen their budget slashed by 24%, going from £1.9 million to £1.1 million in 2014–15 as part of the wide-scale government cuts. Approximately 41% of the savings will be made in the department’s administration costs, including the abolition or substantial reform of a total of 19 of DCMS’s 55 existing quasi non-governmental organizations), including the UK Film Council and the Theatres Trust (which ill continue as an independent charity).
The end result to “front line” arts organizations will be limited to 15% cuts over the next four years. The biggest damage has been done to the Arts Council England, which was downsized by nearly 30% last year. Such a reduction in arts funding will force 1 in every 10 cultural organizations to close.
A positive step from the government has been a boost to the creative industries sector. By April 2013, tax breaks for TV and animation aim to reverse a trend of UK productions being made overseas and attract foreign companies to make their programs in the UK. Tax relief for video games could help increase the sector’s contribution to the UK economy by £280 million over the next five years.
Greece
The burglaries in the national and municipal galleries in February, as well as the armed robbery at the museum Olympia on March 5th, have exposed weaknesses in the protection of cultural heritage sites across the country. These weaknesses have been made worse by the so-called austerity program that is slashing all national public service budgets.
The Greek minister of culture has decided to cut funding for museum security by 20%. According to a new law, the Greek government is also planning personnel cuts of 30–50% at the Ministry of Culture.
Italy
A total budget of €1.8 million for culture is not enough to preserve eroding historical sites like the Coliseum or the collapsing archeological sites in Pompeii (both of which are on the UNESCO world heritage sites list). The Coliseum seeks its salvation at the hands of shoe magnate Della Valle, who own Tod’s shoe brand, and promised to invest €25 million into its revitalization. The budgets of La Scala and the famous Piccolo Teatro have been cut €17 million. Although Italians claim the half of the world’s heritage can be found on the Apennine peninsula, the government earmarked only 0.21% of the national budget for culture, while an average of 1% is common for most the EU countries.
Spain
Spain is currently facing an unemployment rate of 23% (the highest in the EU) and is taking all measures along with its Portuguese neighbours to stay in the Eurozone. The cultural sector in Spain contributes nearly 4% of the GDP and employs 2.8$ of Spanish workers.
The Film Institute, which is responsible for aid to Spanish cinema, will have its budget reduced 35% from €106 million to €69 million according the new 2012 budget. The second highest cut, which is by 17%, will be to the Performing Arts and Music and the National Library will suffer a 14% decrease. The overall cuts to the cultural budget add up to 15%.
Czech Republic
The right-wing coalition government is considering abolishing three departments – the Ministry of Culture not withstanding. The Czech Republic invests only around a mere 0.6% to culture. The government relies on EU programs that predominantly help the performing arts to survive. The country would be on the list of EU countries the have no ministry of culture along with Hungary, Austria, Finland, and recently Portugal. The Czech Republic competes with its Eastern European counterparts at attracting film crews from the West. The film industry incentives account for 800 million Crowns (€32.3 million).
Barbora Polachova is a student in the Czech Republic who worked for the CCA in the context of an internship project with the European Union.