Creative Europe Provides Guidance Regarding Brexit

Creative Europe has given advice to British organizations on how to coordinate existing or upcoming funding programs in the event of “no deal” between the EU and the U.K.

Should there be no deal reached, the U.K. Government has provided reassurance that it will underwrite the payments of awards for the full duration of the project, where U.K. organizations successfully bid directly to the European Commission on a competitive basis while the country remains in the EU. This includes projects that are only informed of their success or sign a grant agreement after the U.K.’s withdrawal from the EU on March 29, 2019.

It is not clear whether U.K.-led applications can be selected after March 29, 2019. Creative Europe said that organizations considering submitting applications for open calls should note that there is “no certainty yet” about how the European Commission will handle U.K. applications and U.K. participation in projects after the EU exit in a no-deal scenario.

The European Commission did include a clause for British applicants in the Creative Europe guidelines and calls for proposals. The clause states that if the U.K. withdraws from the EU during the grant period without concluding an agreement with the EU to ensure that British applicants continue to be eligible, projects will cease to receive EU funding—while continuing, where possible, to participate—or be required to leave the project on the basis of the termination criteria in the grant agreement. It also states that, should the project leader fail to comply with the eligibility criteria, the whole application will be deemed as ineligible.

During its first four years—from 2014 to 2017—Creative Europe has awarded €74 million ($95 million) to 334 U.K.-based cultural and creative organizations and audiovisual companies and helped distribute 145 U.K. films in other European countries.