31/07/2025 - The European Commission has approved Moldova’s accession to the programme, enabling the country’s cultural and creative sectors to access EU funding and participate in cross-border initiatives

The European Commission has approved the signing and provisional application of an agreement enabling the Republic of Moldova to participate in Creative Europe as of 1 January 2026. The EU programme, which supports the cultural and creative sectors, will open its doors to Moldovan organisations on equal terms with their EU counterparts once the accord is signed on 2 September 2025 during the official visit of Glenn Micallef, European Commissioner for Intergenerational Equity, Youth, Culture and Sport, to Chisinau.

The provisional application will immediately allow Moldovan entities to access European funding and take part in cross-border cultural initiatives focused on artistic mobility and cultural diversity. While the provisional application will cover most strands, Moldova’s full participation in the MEDIA and Cross-sectoral components will follow once its national audiovisual legislation is aligned with the Audiovisual Media Services Directive and the agreement is ratified under national law.

According to the Public Institution State Information Agency Moldpres, Prime Minister Dorin Recean welcomed the decision as a milestone for the country’s creative industries, emphasising that culture has been prioritised and has received significant investment in recent years. He highlighted Moldova’s talent and potential in the cultural field, urging citizens to actively support domestic cultural production and pointing to recent reforms as evidence of the government’s commitment.

The Ministry of Culture noted that the national cultural budget has grown steadily from 470 million lei (€23.8 million) in 2021 to 743 million lei (€37.7 million) in 2025, accompanied by salary increases for artistic staff, the renovation of over 80 cultural institutions, and a boost in cinematography funding from 6 million lei (€304,000) in 2020 to 20 million lei (€1,01 million) in 2025.

For the audiovisual sector, Creative Europe membership represents a significant turning point. Moldova has struggled to sustain its domestic film industry: production has remained sparse, and cinema attendance is among Europe’s lowest. However, though small, Moldova’s film industry has made steady progress on the international stage in recent years. Directors such as documentary filmmakers Olga Lucovnicova, whose short My Uncle Tudor won the Golden Bear in Berlin in 2021, and Pavel Cuzuioc whose upcoming documentary Green Light [+see also:
trailer
film profile] is set to premiere in Locarno, along with Ion Borș, whose debut Carbon [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] premiered at San Sebastián and Anatol Durbala (Varvara [+see also:
interview: Anatol Durbală
film profile]), have helped put Moldovan cinema on the map.

The Moldovan National Film Centre, headed by Valentina Iusuphodjaev (see the interview), has doubled funding for documentaries and modestly increased support for feature films, though investments remain small compared with neighbouring countries. Founded this July, the National Cinematography Fund is intended to finance co-productions, preserve film heritage, and diversify local output. Recent cooperation includes a cinematic exchange agreement with Montenegro, which will showcase Moldovan films in Montenegro and vice versa, alongside workshops and networking events designed to foster collaboration (see the news).

Creative Europe, which runs from 2021 to 2027 with a budget of €2.44 billion, is divided into three major strands: Culture, MEDIA, and Cross-Sectoral. The programme supports thousands of projects every year and has become a key tool in fostering artistic mobility, innovation, and the international circulation of European works.