The pandemic has shown us the vulnerability of the cultural and creative industry. According to various statistics, Europe's cultural and creative sector has been hit harder by the pandemic than any other industry with the exception of aviation. During a debate with the European Commissioner Mariya Gabriel, ECR Vice-President Juraj Droba highlighted the "difficult situation" of the sector and pleaded for targeted EU assistance.  

Also serving as President of the Bratislava Region, Mr Droba emphasized the role that local and regional authorities have in the area of culture; “they play a key role in supporting individual artists through various grant schemes”. He gave the example of his own region, which “has established a very successful and popular regional subsidy scheme for the culture sector".

Last year, when “our budget was heavily affected” we had to look for an “out-of-thebox solution”. The regional authority joined forces with a commercial bank in Slovakia to support their cultural entities. Mr Droba described it as a “unique collaboration that allowed many artists to gain access to financing”.

The ECR Vice-President concluded his intervention at the European Committee of the Regions' plenary session by saying that during these exceptional situations like the pandemic, we must look for effective ways to support this sector. He called on the European institutions to provide the tools required "to enable European culture to recover quickly from the consequences caused by the pandemic". Although regions and municipalities are doing whatever they can to support culture, "we count on the support of the European Commission as well to complement our efforts".