EU National Institutes for Culture - EUNIC


Culture in EU’s External Relations: The Way Forward

More Europe, together with 16 other cultural organisations including EUNIC, call on the European Commission and the European Parliament to give adequate consideration to strengthen international cultural relations within future policy frameworks

In a letter, More Europe – external cultural relations and its members, namely the European Cultural Foundation, the Institut français and the British Council, and the Goethe-Institut Brussels, along with 16 other cultural organisations, including EUNIC, call on the European Commission and the European Parliament to give adequate consideration to strengthen international cultural relations within future policy frameworks, including in foreign and sustainable development policies, as well as in the EU multiannual financial framework for 2021-2027.

The Covid-19 pandemic is generating a storm of adverse social and economic effects on the cultural sector in Europe and elsewhere around the globe. Therefore the letter calls for appropriate resources to strengthen international cultural relations and cooperation to be considered within the Next Generation EU and foreign policy instruments.

Cultural exchanges and collaborations are not confined to borders. Global audiences, markets, partners and stakeholders including civil society orgnisations are spread all over the world, increasingly present and active thanks to the surge of online platforms and innovative digital tools. Cooperation opportunities for the European cultural sector depend on the global dynamics of the cultural sector and the partners’ abilities to interact are strongly intertwined. It is by acting collectively with a shared responsibility and solidarity spirit that we will move towards recovery and sustainability in the long term.

As part of the new Neighbourhood Development and International Cooperation Instrument (NDICI), adequate resources to further develop and reinforce EU’s cultural relations should be allocated in order to meet the ambitions of the EU’s values, principles and policies as well as to deepen cooperation with partner countries in the world.

Read the letters here



  • Covid-19
  • Cultural relations
  • EU
  • EU Relations
  • Policy

Co-funded by the European Union Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.