Traditional annual meeting of Creative Europe Desks held in Brussels
The traditional annual meeting of the Creative Europe Desks was held in Brussels at the beginning of October. Every year in October, representatives of the desks responsible for promoting the Creative Europe programme in their countries come together to exchange experiences, analyse results and set priorities for future calls.
During the three-day meeting, participants had the opportunity to learn about the latest policies and initiatives of the European Commission through various sessions, as well as to contribute to the development of the Creative Europe Programme. It is particularly significant that representatives of the Province of Vojvodina, in their role as heads of the Creative Europe Antenna Desk, also attended the meeting, further confirming the importance of regional participation in European processes of cultural and media cooperation.
The first day was dedicated to orientation sessions for new members of the Desks. In the afternoon, a plenary session was held with the presentation of the
Annual Work Programme for 2026, which was adopted at the end of September. The new upcoming programme AgoraEU 2028-2034, which will unite the previous programmes Creative Europe and the CERF programme, was also discussed.
On the second day, the programme was divided into two main areas — Culture and MEDIA.
The Culture sub-programme presented the results of the Culture Moves Europe initiative for 2025, as well as the calendar of calls for 2026. Panels “Let’s talk about cooperation”, sessions on cooperation and visibility of desks, matchmaking activities, as well as subgroups dedicated to capacity building in the areas of diversity, gender equality and synergies were organized. In parallel, within the MEDIA part of the programme, Media Outlook and MEDIA+ were presented, the results of the 2025 selections, new calls for 2026, as well as tools such as the MEDIA carbon footprint calculator. The campaign marking 35 years of the MEDIA programme and discussions on the role of artificial intelligence in the audiovisual sector attracted particular attention.
The third day’s work focused on cross-sectoral results and in-depth analysis of the media sector, with an emphasis on mapping best practices and the use of artificial intelligence. Engagement and communication strategies were particularly highlighted, while the afternoon session was dedicated to sessions on cooperation with the Mediterranean and the Western Balkans. The meeting concluded with a final plenary session and conclusions.
This annual meeting confirmed the importance of Creative Europe as a key European Union program for strengthening the cultural and creative sectors, through cooperation, innovation and shared European values.
