According to official information, on March 18, 2015, in Brussels, Minister of Culture, Monica Babuc and European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Youth and Sport, Tibor Navracsics, signed an agreement on the RM participation in the EU Programme “Creative Europe”.
The agreement provides for the eligibility of Moldova to annually access until 2020 the funding for projects from cultural and creative sectors of the “Culture” sub-programme and certain activities from the “Media” sub-programme of the EU Programme “Creative Europe”. Through this programme all organizations in cultural sectors of the Republic of Moldova: nongovernmental organizations, public institutions or private companies, artists, will benefit from funding for their projects and develop partnerships with cultural organizations in the European Union.
The Creative Europe programme provides support for the capacity of European cultural and creative sectors to operate transnationally and internationally, and strengthen the financial capacity of small and medium organizations in the cultural and creative sectors in a sustainable way. The Programme also enables the promotion of transnational circulation of cultural and creative works and transnational mobility of actors in the cultural and creative field.
Republic of Moldova became part of this programme due to ongoing consultations envisaged between the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Moldova, Moldovan Mission to the European Union and General Directorate for Education and Culture of the European Commission.
The Creative Europe programme is dedicated to the creative and cultural sector operators with minimum 2 years of activity. Creative Europe has three sub-programs: Media, Culture and a cross-sectoral strand dedicated to guaranteeing bank loans and cooperation in cultural policy. “Culture” sub-program supports cooperative projects between at least 3 countries, translations from European literature, European platforms that support mobility and promote creators and European networks that contribute to the professionalization of operators in the cultural and creative sectors.
The programme is managed by the European Commission and Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency in Brussels, where are transmitted and evaluated all projects. Nationally, “Creative Europe” offices from countries participating in this programme, provide operators wishing to access this funding information and free technical assistance.
Official press release http://www.mc.gov.md/ro/content/fost-semnat-acordul-intre-republica-moldova-si-uniunea-europeana-privind-participarea.
We want to mention that during the last two years, AGEPI has undertaken several actions aimed at enhancing and promoting the importance of the creative industries for the development of the national economy, according to the National Intellectual Property Strategy until 2020, approved by GD 880 of 22.11.2012. Among the most relevant activities is the organization of a roundtable on this subject in the International Specialized Exhibition Infoinvent, which took place in the period 19-22 November 2013, and the organization in the said exhibition of a special section dedicated to cultural and creative industries in our country. The meeting was attended by representatives of public authorities responsible for the development and promotion of policies in the field, and exponents of the business, developing businesses in the field of audiovisual, phonographic, software, publishing, art and advertising industries. In the roundtable AGEPI presented the results of a questionnaire, completed by the representatives of public and private sector, which has shown that creative industries sector is less regulated, that is why requires extensive analysis on their contribution to the national economy and considers imminent the involvement of the state in identifying legal and economic instruments for its development.
A positive impact also had the panel of discussions dedicated to the Creative Industries and Social Entrepreneurship, organized by GEW Moldova in partnership with AGEPI on 21 November 2014, in the Global Entrepreneurship Week, marked in Moldova in the period 17-23 November 2014. In this panel were discussed issues related to the economic potential of the creative industries, situation of the creative industries market in the European Union, and about the causes of underdevelopment of this field in the Republic of Moldova.
In the context of the above-mentioned, and in order to assess the real situation in the field of creative industries in our country, at the request of AGEPI, it was launched a joint project with the World Intellectual Property Organization and in cooperation with local experts, in order to carry out a Study on the impact of creative industries on the development of the national economy. Said study runs in the period August 2014 - December 2015.