Civil Society Europe has brought together a wide coalition of civil society organisations, along with stakeholders from the cultural and journalistic sectors, to develop the following position paper on AgoraEU. This will be the main funding resource for civil society, media and the cultural sector in the next EU long-term budget.

We welcome the proposed AgoraEU funding as recognising the importance of culture, media freedom, and democratic participation. However, growing needs and decreasing support from major international funders have created funding gaps across culture, independent media and civil society. At the same time, authoritarian actors are increasing investment in information influence, which highlights the need for EU-level support for the sector. Consequently, even if the proposed budget for AgoraEU is ambitious, it may not be sufficient to meet the scale of current challenges. We communicate our position and make suggestions for a better effectiveness of the programme.

For the drafting of this position paper, we would like to particularly extend our thanks to Culture Action Europe, the European Civic Forum, the European Federation of Journalists, the International Planned Parenthood Federation European Network, the European Gender Budgeting Network, and ILGA-Europe.