Protect AgoraEU Funding – Invest in Europe’s Children and Their Cultural Future
Open letter to the Members of the European Council
14 October 2026
Dear Members of the European Council,
The European Children’s Film Association (ECFA) and Kids Regio join the growing number of European cultural, audiovisual and civil society organisations expressing their strong opposition to the proposed 30% reduction in funding for AgoraEU under the Irish Presidency’s negotiating framework for the 2028–2034 Multiannual Financial Framework.
Reducing the programme’s proposed budget from €8.6 billion to €6 billion would severely undermine EU commitment to support cultural diversity, audiovisual work, democratic participation and cross-border cooperation. Such a disproportionate reduction would generate negligible savings in the overall EU budget while jeopardising essential cultural and democratic infrastructure across Europe.
We wish to draw particular attention to the consequences for children and young people.
Access to culture is a fundamental right of every child, recognised by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Children are not simply future audiences or consumers of audiovisual content. They are citizens with cultural rights today – entitled to discover, experience, create and participate in the cultural life of their societies.
European children’s cinema plays an essential role in making these rights meaningful. It enables children to encounter stories, languages and perspectives beyond their immediate surroundings, to understand cultural differences and to develop their own relationship with European culture.
Yet children’s films face particular structural challenges. Their production, distribution and circulation often depend on specialised support mechanisms. Language accessibility, including dubbing and age-appropriate subtitling, is essential for reaching young audiences across borders. Dedicated festivals, cinemas, educational programmes and cultural mediators provide opportunities to discover European films that would otherwise remain inaccessible.
These activities cannot be sustained through market mechanisms alone.
Film education is equally important. Beyond developing future audiences, it empowers children to understand audiovisual language, engage critically and creatively with moving images, and express themselves through filmmaking. At a time when children’s audiovisual experiences are increasingly shaped by global digital platforms, algorithms and commercial interests, access to diverse European cinema and meaningful film education is an essential contribution to cultural participation and democratic resilience.
European funding has helped establish an interconnected ecosystem of filmmakers, distributors, festivals, educators and cultural organisations working specifically for children and young people. Many of these organisations are small, independent and locally rooted, while their impact depends on European cooperation. They are particularly vulnerable to funding reductions and increasingly demanding administrative and co-financing requirements.
The proposed cuts would threaten not only individual projects but also the networks, expertise and long-term relationships that make European children’s audiovisual culture possible.
Investing in children’s cinema is not merely an investment in the audiovisual sector. It is an investment in children’s cultural rights, linguistic diversity, social inclusion and Europe’s democratic future.
As negotiations on the 2028–2034 Multiannual Financial Framework enter a decisive phase, Member States still have the opportunity to reconsider the proposed reduction in AgoraEU funding before a political agreement is reached. The European Parliament also has a crucial role to play in defending adequate funding throughout the approval process. Europe’s commitment to children’s cultural rights, audiovisual diversity and film education must be matched by the resources necessary to deliver.
We therefore call on the EU institutions and Member States to:
- Reject the proposed 30% reduction and maintain, at a minimum, the European Commission’s proposed €8.6 billion allocation for AgoraEU.
- Ensure adequate and predictable funding for the audiovisual sector, recognising the specific needs of children and young people throughout the audiovisual value chain, from creation and production to distribution, circulation, accessibility and cultural participation.
- Safeguard film education as a distinct cultural and educational priority, alongside audience development, and protect the specialised festivals, organisations and cross-border networks that make European cinema accessible to children.
- Ensure that smaller and specialised organisations can effectively access European funding, through proportionate requirements, appropriate co-financing mechanisms and recognition of the structural costs involved in reaching young audiences.
Europe’s cultural future depends on the opportunities we offer its youngest citizens today. Weakening the structures that connect children with European stories would be a short-sighted decision with consequences extending far beyond the next budgetary cycle. We urge European leaders to recognise children’s audiovisual culture as an essential part of Europe’s cultural and democratic infrastructure, and to provide AgoraEU with the resources necessary to sustain it.
Yours sincerely,
European Children’s Film Association (ECFA)
Kids Regio
Kids Regio represents an initiative designed for the industry professionals in film for children & youth with the objective to build a strong, vital and diverse children’s film culture in Europe that is visible and accessible. As a sub group of Cine Regio it is embedded as a project within the German Children’s Media Foundation GOLDEN SPARROW and supported by Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung and the State Chancellery of Thuringia.
Contact: Marieann Weißhuhn, Project Manager, weisshuhn@kids-regio.org
The European Children’s Film Association (ECFA) is the organisation for all who are interested in high quality films for children and young people and the voice of its currently nearly 150 members, mostly companies and organisations, coming from 41 different countries. ECFA offers a communication panel promoting new ways of co-operation within Europe in the fields of production, festivals, distribution, exhibition and film education. ECFA’s aim is to support cinema for children and youth in all its aspects: cultural, economic, aesthetic, social, political and educational.
Contact: Pantelis Panteloglou, ECFA President, pantelis@ecfaweb.org