This autumn, AEC will launch a coordinated advocacy campaign calling on national governments to secure a strong and visible place for culture in general, and for music education and artistic research in particular, in the EU budget for 2028–2034. AEC members across Europe will be invited to help bring this message directly to national decision-makers.
Negotiations on the next EU Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) are entering a crucial phase. While AEC and its European partners continue to advocate towards the EU institutions in Brussels, many important decisions will ultimately depend on the positions taken by national governments. This makes coordinated action at national level increasingly important.
During October, AEC will therefore reach out to national associations of conservatoires and higher music education institutions across Europe. In countries without such an association, AEC will invite leading member institutions to coordinate the initiative. Participants will receive a template letter and an information pack with background material, key messages and practical guidance on approaching relevant ministries, government officials and national Permanent Representations to the EU.
The campaign will call for dedicated and adequately funded space for culture, including Higher Music Education and artistic research in the major EU programmes currently being negotiated, including AgoraEU, Horizon Europe and the European Competitiveness Fund, and Erasmus+. AEC will build on Culture Action Europe’s NAME, PLACE, FUND campaign: culture must be explicitly NAMED in future programmes, given a clearly identifiable PLACE through dedicated structures and budget lines, and receive sufficient FUNDING to match its contribution to Europe’s creativity, education, research, democracy and competitiveness.
A new priority: National and Regional Partnership Plans
Particular attention will be given to the proposed National and Regional Partnership Plans (NRPPs). With an overall proposed envelope of around €865 billion for 2028–2034 – almost half of the future EU budget – these plans could become one of the most important sources of European investment in the coming decade.
Unlike centrally managed programmes such as Horizon Europe and AgoraEU, the NRPPs will be developed largely by the Member States themselves. National governments are already beginning to identify priorities and determine how EU resources should be used. The cultural and educational sectors therefore need to become involved now, while these priorities are still being shaped.
AEC will call for dedicated cultural chapters and ring-fenced funding for culture within the national plans, building on the ambition of allocating at least 2% to culture. HME institutions play an important role by demonstrating how investment in culture contributes not only to artistic creation, but also to education, innovation, regional development, wellbeing, social cohesion and democratic resilience.
The strength of this campaign will depend on action across as many European countries as possible. AEC therefore encourages its members to join forces nationally, use their existing contacts with ministries and public authorities, and help ensure that culture has a strong voice where the next European budget is being shaped.
Further information, template letters and the AEC campaign pack will be distributed during October.
Active AEC participation in public consultation processes
AEC has during September responded to three Calls for Evidence from the European Commission, bringing the perspective of higher music education into key policy discussions on the future of education, artificial intelligence and working conditions. Across the three submissions, AEC highlights the contribution of music and the arts to learning, creativity and societal development; the need for a human-centred and critically informed approach to AI; and the importance of fair, sustainable working conditions for graduates entering professional music and the wider cultural and creative sectors.
In its response to the Education Package 2040 Roadmap, AEC argues for a broader understanding of quality education. While literacy, numeracy, science and digital skills are essential, learning also depends on curiosity, attention, imagination, critical thinking, collaboration and the ability to make connections. Arts education plays a distinctive role in developing these capacities by encouraging learners to listen, observe, interpret, experiment and create. AEC therefore calls for arts and cultural education to be clearly reflected in the Roadmap, for creative and arts-based approaches to be strengthened in teacher education, and for creativity, cultural awareness and expression to be recognised as important educational outcomes.
AEC’s contribution to the forthcoming EU AI Strategy for the Cultural and Creative Sectors focuses on the role of higher arts education in shaping responsible and human-centred uses of AI. Students and teachers need more than technical skills: they need critical AI literacy and the ability to assess when, why and how AI should be used. The submission also stresses that artistic learning depends on human processes such as experimentation, interpretation, reflection and embodied practice, which should not be replaced by automated outputs. AEC therefore calls for higher arts education institutions to be recognised as education, research and innovation actors and to be included in the future dialogue, governance and implementation of Europe’s approach to AI in culture.
AEC has also contributed to the European Commission’s Call for Evidence on the forthcoming Quality Jobs Act, focusing particularly on the working conditions facing graduates entering professional music and the wider cultural and creative sectors. European research has repeatedly documented a sector characterised by freelance and project-based work, irregular incomes, multiple employment statuses and gaps in social protection.
AEC calls for the particular realities of artistic careers to be recognised in the Quality Jobs Act, including fair remuneration for preparation, rehearsal and creative work; better access to portable social protection; stronger collective representation; and attention to the physical and psychosocial risks of artistic careers. The submission also supports the direction of the emerging EU Artists’ Charter, including the use of social conditionality in EU cultural funding and a stronger role for higher education in music and the arts in preparing graduates to understand contracts, copyright, taxation, social protection and their rights as professionals.
