Artistic freedom: EFA signed the Bratislava Declaration
As a reaction to raising authoritarianism, representatives from the cultural sector joined forces to defend artistic freedom in the EU, opening the pathway to an European Artistic Freedom Act proposal.
"Now is the time to act to prevent irreversible damage to Europe’s democratic cultural structures."
Political interference in the arts
30 May 2025. Bratislava, Slovakia. A coalition of cultural workers, artists, institutional leaders and grassroots organisations from across the European Union has issued an urgent appeal to the EU leadership following the OpenCulture! International Conference.
The resulting Bratislava Declaration officially acknowledges an acute crisis threatening artistic freedom and cultural independence across a growing number of EU Member States. Cultural institutions are facing routine political interference - public funding is being redirected towards individuals and organisations that either accept censorship or engage in selfcensorship under the threat of exclusion from financial support: artists and cultural workers are loosing the grip on their rights, autonomy, and coercion-free working conditions.
Six Actions for artistic freedom
The Bratislava Declaration serves as a direct Call to Action to the leadership of the European Union, demanding the implementation of protections for artistic freedom across all Member States:
- Aknowledging the crisis of cultural structure erosion
- Upholding artistic freedom, tackling censorship
- Ensuring public funding, with no political compliance
- Solidarity to the artists attacked by censorship
- Implementing fair working conditions in the cultural field
- Creation of the European Artistic Freedom Act ensuring protection of artistic freedom across all Member States
The "deconstruction of the cultural and creative sectors leads to the deconstruction of our societies." Read the Declaration, sign it, share it.