IGCAT welcomes the Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions, published in Brussels on 26th September 2012.
In particular, IGCAT welcome’s the Commissions recognition that by promoting cultural and creative sectors it is possible to stimulate growth and jobs. And, it is encouraging to see mechanisms being introduced, such as the Small Business Act for Europe (p.7), that will aim to improve the overall approach to entrepreneurship. IGCAT supports the nurturing of SME’s, particularly given their relevance for the cultural and creative sectors where freelance, small and medium sized enterprises are predominant.
IGCAT strongly believes that the skills base for local and regional administrators need to be widened. Therefore, we also welcome the Commission’s intension to “support peer learning among city administrations, to allow local policymakers to share and compare experience on the impact of culture in the social and economic revitalisation of cities” (p.9).
We agree that the Commission’s proposals for programmes and instruments for the new Multi-annual Financial Framework 2014-2020, and in particularly Creative Europe30, Erasmus for all31, the Cohesion Policy Funds32, Horizon 202033, COSME34 and Connecting Europe Facility35 will make a decisive contribution to support the further development of the cultural and creative sectors.