Georgia Joins Creative Europe EU program

Freedom bridge - Tbilisi (Georgia)

Georgia joins the EU program Creative Europe – On February 18, Ministry of Culture and Monument Protection hosted a briefing dedicated to this event.  The briefing was presided by the Minister of Culture Mikheil Giorgadze and was attended by Minister of Foreign Affairs Tamar Beruchashvili, State Minister on European and Euro-Atlantic Integration David Bakradze and the EU Ambassador to Georgia Janos Herman.

On February 24, in Brussels, 16:00 local time, Georgian Minister of Culture and Monument Protection Mikheil Giorgadze and the European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Youth and Sport Issues Tibor Navracsics will sign an agreement, making Georgia a member state of EU program "Creative Europe". The signing ceremony will be held at the office of the Commissioner. Georgia is the first Eastern Partnership country that becomes a member of this program.

"Joining Creative Europe will provide new opportunities for Georgia, help in creating jobs and human and economic development, increase the presence of Georgian artists and help them in creating contacts. It will also support the creative economy whose relevance is steadily growing in Georgia and globally", Ambassador Herman said.

Creative Europe is a 6-year program, created to support the European culture, audio-visual, performing and visual arts, publishing, film, television, music, interdisciplinary arts, cultural heritage and the videogame industry.

Cultural organizations can participate in Creative Europe by submitting projects in the field of culture and multimedia. The total budget of the program is €1.46 billion aimed at financing projects that win the competition during 6 years (2014-2020). This funding will enable the organizations operating in the various fields of culture in Georgia to work across Europe, present themselves to new viewers / listeners and implement joint projects with European partners.

Becoming a member of the Creative Europe program is a step forward for Georgia in the process of implementing the commitments undertaken under the Association Agreement with the EU.

Georgia joins the EU program Creative Europe at a time when Russia's intervention in Ukraine raises concerns among the former Soviet republics with respect to the repetition of the Russian neighborhood policy in their territories.