The European Commission published in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJ) on the 7th June 2008, a new call for porposals related to the application of acctions from the wider Culture Programme (2007- 2013). The call for Proposals has a total budget of  45,3 millon euros for 2009.

The Culture Programme  has been established to enhance the cultural area shared by Europeans, which is based on a common cultural heritage, through the development of cooperation activities among cultural operators from eligible countries, with a view to encouraging the emergence of European citizenship. The Programme is aimed at three specific objectives:

• Promotion of the trans-national mobility of people working in the cultural sector,
• Support for the trans-national circulation of cultural and artistic works and products,
• Promotion of inter-cultural dialogue.

The Programme has a flexible, interdisciplinary approach and is focussed on the needs expressed by cultural operators during the public consultations leading up to its design.

Strands

Strand 1
Support for cultural projects Cultural organisations are given support for projects to work together across borders and to create and implement cultural and artistic activities. The thrust of this strand is to help organisations, such as theatres, museums, professional associations, research centres, universities, cultural institutes and public authorities from different countries participating in the Culture Programme to cooperate so that different sectors can work together and extend their cultural and artistic reach across borders.

Strand 2
Support for organisations active at European level in the field of culture Cultural organisations working, or wanting to work, at European level in the field of culture can receive support for their operating costs. This strand targets organisations that promote a sense of shared cultural experience with a truly European dimension. The grant awarded under this strand is a support to operating costs incurred for the permanent activities of beneficiary organisations. This profoundly differs from any other grants, which may be awarded under the other strands of the Programme.
The Culture Programme supports projects, organisations, promotional activities and research in all branches of culture, except the audiovisual branch for which there is a separate programme named MEDIA. Cultural operators, including cultural enterprises, can participate in the Culture Programme as long as they are acting in a non-profit-making cultural capacity.

The call "Implementation of the culture programme actions" is open to:

1. Public or private organisation with legal status, whose principal activity is in the cultural sphere (cultural and creative sectors).
2. Have their registered legal seat in one of the eligible countries.

Budget

The Programme has a total budget of 400 million euros for the 2007-2013 period. Total yearly appropriations, including for those actions that do not form part of the Programme Guide, may vary from around 43 million euros to about 58 million euros, depending on the year. On a proposal by the Commission the annual budget breakdown per strand (in line with the approximations indicated hereafter) is approved by the Programme Committee.

Deadlines for applications

Multi-annual cooperation projects - 1 October 2008
Cooperation projects - 1 October 2008
Literary translation projects - 1 February 2009
Cultural cooperation projects with third countries - 1 May 2009
Support for organisations active at European level in the field of culture - 1 November 2008

The detailed conditions for application can be found in the Culture Programme Guide on the following websites, The Directorate General of Education and Culture and the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency