EDN welcomes the publication of the Culture Compass for Europe, the European Commission’s new strategic framework placing culture at the heart of EU policy-making and setting out 20 flagship actions for the coming years.

This landmark document builds directly on the sector’s collective work over the past years, including the discussion paper “Towards the Culture Compass: A Sector Blueprint” coordinated by Culture Action Europe. EDN was proud to contribute to this blueprint through the international cultural networks’ policy consultation, ensuring that dance development organisations are recognised as vital actors in Europe’s cultural ecosystem.

The Culture Compass for Europe is structured around four key directions:

• upholding cultural rights and European values,
• empowering artists and cultural professionals,
• strengthening competitiveness, resilience and cohesion through culture, and
• championing international cultural relations and partnerships.

Network partners are already engaging with this new framework. Culture Action Europe offers an in-depth unpacking of the strategy and its 20 flagship actions, while IETM provides a targeted analysis from the perspective of the contemporary performing arts, highlighting crucial priorities such as artists’ working conditions, artistic freedom, cultural participation and the proposal for a new EU Performing Arts Prize.

EDN will continue to work within this shared framework with Culture Action Europe, IETM and other European cultural networks. Together, we call on the EU to match its cultural ambition with fair, stable and strategic investment; ensuring that AgoraEU and the Culture Compass truly empower Europe’s performing arts to continue shaping democratic, resilient and imaginative societies.