MEP says innovative financial instruments are key to push creative sector forward in EU

MEP Therese Comodini Cachia says that access to finance is the key to push the creative sector forward

MEP Therese Comodini Cachia
MEP Therese Comodini Cachia

MEP Therese Comodini Cachia has said that access to finance is the key to push the creative sector forward.

 “Start-ups and SMEs need to have readily available information on sources of funding and have a better understanding of the funding schemes available. Policy makers have to take into consideration the specific challenges being faced by the creative sector," she said, following the adoption of an opinion on ‘access to finance for SMEs and increasing the diversity of SME funding in a Capital Markets Union’ during a meeting of the Committee on Culture and Education at the European Parliament in Brussels.
 Meetings with stakeholders in Malta have revealed that access to finance for start-ups and SMEs in the creative sector was challenging as requisites overlooked difficulties faced by the sector.  Comodini Cachia stated that: "Malta has strong potential for growth in this sector but measures to assist SMEs as well as start-ups are either missing or fail to address the needs and challenges of the sector."
 
The creative sector is one of the fastest growing sectors of the European economy. According to Eurostat figures 2.9 % of the EU’s workforce, i.e. 6.3 million people, were employed in the
cultural sector in 2014.
 
Comodini Cachia, a member of the Committee on Culture and Education, stated that the creative sector could not rely solely on public investment schemes. She presented several amendments calling for more efficient, flexible and innovative instruments such as microcredit, repayable contributions and crowdfunding to facilitate access to finance. The amendments of MEP Comodini Cachia were supported by the members of the committee and incorporated in the final opinion of the committee.
 
Speaking about the benefits of crowdfunding, Comodini Cachia welcomed the ongoing project of the Commission on crowdfunding for the cultural and creative sectors but remarked that policy and regulatory frameworks should focus on reward-based and donation-based crowdfunding which have been the most frequently used by SMEs in the creative sector.