EXCLUSIVE: Creative Europe has come one step nearer after the 27 EU leaders agreed on Friday in Brussels to an overall $1.3tn (€960bn) budget for 2014-20.

“I doubt we will get as much as we want, but I am sure we will get more than at present because of the additional activities planned in the new Creative Europe programme,” Doris Pack, chair of the European Parliament’s Committee on Culture and Education, told Screen.

In the Friday agreement, $1.3bn (€1bn) was shaved off the EU’s ‘security and citizenship’ budget, which includes funding for the cultural and creative sectors, leaving it with $21bn (€15.7bn) for the seven years to 2020.

The European Commission had proposed a budget of $2.4bn (€1.8bn) for Creative Europe with three strands for culture, media and one for a loan-guarantee facility and trans-national policies.

“Now we have an idea of how much money we will get, we can have a trilogue between the Commission, Council and Parliament. And if we hurry, we could be ready in May or June, and the programme would then go before the [European] Parliament,” Pack said.

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