Green Culture: Relations Between the Cultural and Creative Sectors and the EU Green Deal: Analysis and Perspectives

In the second half of the 2010s, the European Union faced the dilemma of ecological transformation, the result of multiannual changes implemented to ensure sustainable development as well as the need to respond to global climate challenges. The cultural and creative sectors (CCS) have been systematically, albeit slowly, incorporated into these new transformation processes by means of the spill-over mechanism (Mitrany, 2003; Littoz-Monnet, 2007; Barburska, 2017). The objective of this article is to analyse the formation of the EU’s internal political relations, with a particular emphasis on the mechanism through which the CCS adopt key European ideas and strategies, especially during Ursula von der Leyen’s term as President of the European Commission (2019–2023). The article covers a timeframe from 2014 to 2023, which encompasses the implementation of the major EU culture and media programmes, namely, Creative Europe 2014–2020; Creative Europe 2021–2027; and the New European Bauhaus programmes. This discourse analysis is based on political science methodology, examining the contents of EU documents, public debates, and topics from European studies literature. It incorporates the author’s interpretation of statistical data, as found in the second half of the paper. The article’s main hypothesis is that beginning in the third decade of the twenty-first century, the EU has been shaping formal mutual relations between the CCS and the idea of green transformation. Although these initiatives are not large-scale, they deepen integration mechanisms, heighten awareness of contemporary challenges among artists, and foster a sense of shared responsibility for the continent’s welfare within the CCS.