The President of the Federation of European Publishers (FEP), Rudy Vanschoonbeek, sent a distress signal to the European Commissioner for Culture, Mariya Gabriel, to support the book industry. Among the measures requested, publishers would like a significant increase in the budget of the European Creative Europe programme.

With the existing instruments, the EPF would like to see Creative Europe’s budget “significantly increased” and even “doubled”. Similarly, the Horizon Europe programme could provide significant funding for innovative initiatives in the sector, notably in the field of copyright, digital accessibility and artificial intelligence.

In the longer term, the Federation would like Creative Europe to have a specific programme dedicated to the book industry, similar to the Media programme for the audiovisual sector, recalling that it must be prepared today so that it can start in January 2021.