Participation in programme "Creative Europe 2014 - 2020"
- Participation in community programs that foster cooperation, promote the mobility of artists and creators, as well as the production and distribution of their works.
- "Creative Europe 2014 - 2020" is the European Commission's framework programme for support to the culture and audiovisual sectors.
Under the EU - Albania Agreement on Albania 's participation in the EU “Creative Europe” Programme, ratified by Law No.91 / 2014, which entered into force on 31 July 2014, Albania participates in the subprogramme “CULTURE”.
In October 2014, European Commission services decide that Albania can participate and benefit from the subprogramme "MEDIA" of "Creative Europe", as it has aligned the relevant EU directives in the audiovisual field.
Benefit of financial support for artists, cultural and audiovisual professionals as well as organizations operating in the field of performing arts, visual arts, publishing, film, TV, music, interdisciplinary arts, video game industries, etc.
The Ministry of Culture has enabled membership in this programme, specifically, in its two sub-branches (Media and Culture) with the payment of a membership fee of 150,000 euros a year (95,000 Euros for "Media" and 55,000 Euros for "Culture"). This amount has been fully paid for the first year (2015) and in other years until 2020, the EU has and will reimburse this amount by 80%, to ensure a better and more comprehensive access for applicants to these programmes.
Albania has achieved good results for two Actions of the Sub-Program Culture and has benefited concretely:
-In the Call for "Literary Translation", from 2014 until now have applied 25 publishing houses, and have won 12 of them, for a total funding of about 660.000 Euros;
- In the Call for “European Cooperation Projects” we have had the first leading winner of a project worth 200,000 Euros, while three other associations have been declared winners, as partners of various projects with a funding value of about 80,000 Euros.
In total, so far, Albania has benefited from the Sub-Program Culture a funding value of about 940,000 Euros.
In the subprogramme “Media”, since Albania's membership in January 2015, out of 14 calls for projects under this program, applicants from Albania, with the assistance of the Open Desk at the Ministry of Culture, have accessed and won 4 calls for 2015 and 2016 .
Benefits are direct and indirect.
Directly: -In the First Call for Film Development, a project with an Albanian applicant as a leader, has won the amount of 30.000 Euros;
-In the Second Call for Distribution of Film, the Albanian applicant again in the role of the leader, was declared winner with the project in the value of 10.000 Euros;
- In the Third Call for the Development of the Audience, in the role of collaborator in the project, the Albanian applicant has benefited an amount of 15,000 Euros;
- In the Fourth Call for the Online Distribution of European Film, in the role of a co-worker, our applicant has benefited the amount of 15,000 Euros.
In total, there were 25 applications and 4 winners, with a value of 70,000 euros, in just 1 year and 10 months since joining this subprogram.
Indirectly, from this program, so far have benefited 13 professionals from the field of cinema, including young people among them, who have received vocational training in the best cinema schools in Europe.
For less than two years, membership in the subprogramme "Media" is considered a success story, compared to the countries in the region.