Cultural Sector Register: 100 million euros for the cultural sector through state aid scheme

The Ministry of Culture, with the support of the Romanian Government, carried out a draft state aid scheme, in order to support the cultural sector, where the activities were stopped, as a precautionary measure to avoid the spread of SARS VOC-2. The details of the state aid scheme were presented during a press conference attended by Deputy Prime Minister Raluca Turcan, Minister of Culture Bogdan Gheorghiu and Mayor General of the capital Nicusor Dan.

The state aid scheme covers 5 measures, and the eligible beneficiaries are private law entities: non-governmental organizations and companies (both SMEs and large enterprises) that have carried out activities in the last 2 years according to the activity report assumed by the legal representative of the applicant in one of the following cultural fields: performing arts (theater, music, dance), visual arts (painting, sculpture, film, photography), heritage, book, audio-visual, cultural education. They must be registered on the date of submission of the project in the Register of the Cultural Sector, a register initiated and managed by the National Institute for Cultural Research and Training (INCFC), an institution subordinated to the Ministry of Culture.

The pre-registration period will end on Wednesday, 25.11.2020 [Update 24.11.2020: Registration in the register has been extended until December 9, 2020 (inclusive)]. Pre-registration is needed to assess the budgetary impact of the State aid scheme to support the cultural sector, so that the allocated budget is necessary and sufficient. After the Ministry of Culture will have the estimation of this budgetary impact, it will be possible to put in public consultation the normative act related to the State aid scheme.

The state aid scheme presented today covers 5 measures:

Measure A: microgrants

Cultural operators who have no income from ticket sales

The maximum value of state aid is the RON equivalent of the amount of 4,000 euros / beneficiary of state aid.

Measure B: Grants for organizing cultural festivals

Cultural operators who organized a cultural festival with ticket sales.

The maximum value of state aid is the RON equivalent of 25% of the gross value of tickets sold at the 2019 edition of the festival, but not more than 800,000 euros.

Measure C – Grants for organizing cultural events

The cultural operators organized cultural events in 2019 and have revenues from tickets sold

C.1 Musical events and stand-up comedy events:

Between 1 – 10 events organized in 2019 – the maximum value of state aid is the RON equivalent of 5% of the gross value of tickets sold at events organized in 2019, but not more than 800,000 euros.

Between 11 – 50 events organized in 2019 – the maximum value of state aid is the RON equivalent of 7% of the gross value of tickets sold at events organized in 2019, but not more than 800,000 euros.

Over 50 events organized in 2019 – the maximum value of state aid is the RON equivalent of 9% of the gross value of tickets sold at events organized in 2019, but not more than 800,000 euros.

C.2 Events from cultural fields other than music and stand-up comedy:

The maximum value of state aid is the RON equivalent of 50% of the gross value of tickets sold at events organized in 2019, but not more than 800,000 euros.

Measure D – Grants for bookstores

The maximum value of state aid is the RON equivalent of 25% of the gross value of book sales in 2019, but not more than 800,000 euros.

Measure E – Grants for publishing houses

The maximum value of state aid is the RON equivalent of 25% of the gross value of direct physical book sales in 2019, but not more than 800,000 euros.

The pre-registration stage in the Register of the Cultural Sector of economic operators is necessary to assess the budgetary impact of the state aid scheme to support culture, so that the allocated budget is both necessary and sufficient. After the Ministry of Culture has this budgetary impact, the normative act related to the State Aid Scheme will be put into public consultation. The estimated term for the operationalization of the scheme will be the beginning of 2021. The estimated budget is 100,000,000 Euros.

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