Executive Summary

European Cultural and Creative Industries (CCI) have become an established policy field across the EU, with most countries recognising their economic and societal contributions. Over two decades of development have strengthened visibility and legitimacy through mapping, statistics, and policy documents. However, despite growing understanding of CCI’s wider societal value – such as contributions to social cohesion, education, and innovation – major barriers remain.

A core challenge is the persistence of policy silos separating cultural policy, trade and industry policy, and innovation policy. This fragmentation prevents CCI actors from fully engaging in innovation ecosystems and limits their role in driving green, digital, and socially inclusive transitions. While several countries have attempted to address this through regional initiatives or centres of expertise (“policy airlifts”), these efforts remain uneven and often lack long-term support.

ekip addresses these gaps by offering a shared European infrastructure for policy-makers, researchers, and creative actors. Through analyses, thematic studies, and toolkits, ekip facilitates transitions from data-gathering to future-oriented policy design. Its thematic focus areas demonstrate the diverse needs of the sector and highlight opportunities for more coherent, cross-sector innovation policies. To realise CCI’s full potential, governance structures must become more coordinated, data collection more systematic, and CCI more firmly embedded within mainstream innovation policy frameworks.

Recommendations:

• Promote Holistic and Future-Oriented Policy Framing
• Break Down Policy Silos
• Strengthen Systematic CCI Data and Monitoring
• Integrate CCI into National and Regional Innovation Policies
• Support Regional and Local “Policy Airlifts”
• Use the ekip Platform as a European Knowledge Hub