Following the 2024 EU elections, the European Commission saw its 27 Commissioners change for a new five-year term. From December 2024 onwards, Maltese politician Glenn Micallef has taken on the role of Commissioner for Intergenerational Fairness, Youth, Culture, and Sport.
In his Mission Letter, the President of the European Commission tasked Commissioner Micallef with developing a new “Culture Compass, an overarching strategic framework to guide and harness the multiple dimensions of culture.”
This initiative is now in its initial consultation and call for evidence phase. The first consultation took place at the European Commission on March 20th, 2025 and brought together EU-funded cultural projects and other cultural stakeholders, each of which had the opportunity to suggest a priority for the future of the European cultural scene.
This was followed by a call for evidence opening on April 15th, 2025, in which cultural players are invited to contribute their ideas on what should be included in this EU initiative—the call for evidence will close on May 31st, 2025.
Reset! as the Independent Direction of Europe’s Culture Compass
In this framework, the Reset! network, representing European independent cultural and media organisations, has taken part to the dynamic with a contribution that builds on over three years of defending the independent sector’s interests, documenting its challenges, and to empowering its members—and notably its:
Atlas of Independent Culture and Media: Policy Proposals.
The Reset! network's advocacy endeavour is a direct response to the pressing landscape of political challenges facing independent cultural and media organisations. From war, to obscurantist, reactionary, and authoritarian forces coming to power in several countries, to private corporations massively buying up entire fringes of the cultural and media space, independent scenes are now more than ever under multiple threats.
In this situation, Reset! acknowledges the necessity to collaborate with institutions in a collective dynamic of sharing and learning, leading to the capacity for the European Commission to shape EU action for culture in the most informed and grounded way. By contributing to this call for evidence, Reset! aims to include different perspectives and contexts—from the diversity of voices within the network—in this forthcoming European Culture Compass.