Cultural Deal for Europe: Annual Policy Conversation 2026
The European Cultural Foundation, Culture Action Europe and Europa Nostra are organising the Cultural Deal for Europe: Annual Policy Conversation 2026 on 3 February (15:00 – 17:30 CET) in Brussels. It will be a key moment for high-level EU policymakers and the wider culture, cultural heritage and civil society sectors to take stock of current developments, discuss upcoming policy challenges and opportunities, and together shape the sector’s advocacy agenda for the year ahead.
The year 2026 will be important for the negotiations on the EU’s long-term budget (MFF 2028-2034), the EU’s long-term priorities and the newly released strategic framework for culture – the Culture Compass for Europe.
The Cultural Deal for Europe: Annual Policy Conversation 2026 will focus on the following questions:
What must be done to secure a strong culture and cultural heritage base in the next EU budget and secure a powerful cultural and civil society dimension across programmes, including the AgoraEU programme? Europa Nostra, Culture Action Europe and the European Cultural Foundation, the three initiators of the Cultural Deal for Europe campaign, will recall our plea to dedicate 2% of the EU budget to culture and cultural heritage.
How will the recently released Culture Compass for Europe address key European challenges through culture and unleash its greater potential and new partnerships? And how can the wider civil society ecosystem best reinforce European values and rights to provide a compass to European citizens and communities?
Registrations for the event will be open soon.
Europa Nostra’s contribution to this event takes place under the framework of the network project Europa Nostra Heritage Agora (2025-2028), co-funded by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union.
