The inaugural Forum meeting and the Policy Recommendations
The inaugural meeting of the Forum on EU-UK Cultural & Media Relations took place on 20 October 2025 in Brussels at MEDAA, the European House of Authors.
Around 50 participants – CCS representatives from the EU and the UK as well as governmental and parliamentary observers from both sides of the Channel – developed joint Policy Recommendations, subsequently co-signed by more than 200 stakeholders from the EU and the UK, and published on 11 November 2025, in advance of the EU-UK Parliamentary Partnership Assembly (PPA) meeting on 17 and 18 November 2025 in London.
The Policy Recommendations emphasise that culture and creativity are vital to the political, societal and economic relationship between the EU and UK, particularly at a time of growth of the CCS, rapidly evolving technologies and new regulatory challenges.
The Policy Recommendations were shared with more than 250 relevant policymakers from the EU and the UK – including the members of the EU-UK Parliamentary Partnership Assembly, the members of the respective parliamentary committees responsible for culture (EU, UK, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland), several other parliamentarians as well as numerous government officials.
Policy Recommendations resulting from the inaugural Forum meeting
Read the full Policy Recommendations here and the Press Release here.
”The EU and the UK are strategically important partners in the CCS with historically aligned approaches to cultural engagement and regulation. However, cooperation – and thus, the sectors’ continued growth – is currently limited by multiple barriers. Moreover, fast-moving developments in new technologies mean that close collaboration – beyond what was agreed in the Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) – is now essential.”
In the Policy Recommendations, the more than 200 co-signing CCS stakeholders call on all institutions of the EU and the UK to commit to - amongst others - the following measures, categorised into four paragraphs.
I. Transnational Funding of the CCS across the EU and the UK
● Commit to full UK participation in the successor to Creative Europe within AgoraEU – the proposed EU funding programme for 2028-2034 – to enable structured, multilateral and efficient transnational cooperation, creative collaboration and innovation, and explore the potential of UK participation in the current Creative Europe programme in 2027 as a pilot phase
II. Cross-Border Collaboration across the EU and the UK
● Establish a structured dialogue for the CCS as a formal knowledge sharing framework to ensure stronger collaboration between the EU and the UK
III. Individual Cross-Border Mobility between the EU and the UK
● Remove common barriers (to be identified by a dedicated mobility working group) to cross-border mobility of CCS professionals
IV. Cooperation of the EU and the UK in Regulation and Innovation
● Address the impact of emerging technologies on the CCS, such as Generative AI, by working together through the formal knowledge sharing framework recommended in (II)
See the full list here.
