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1. Welcome: Setting the Stage 2. “Appreciation is the cheapest currency" – The Political Reality 3. BrandBrief: Urgent Action 4. Reflective AI: The Alternative Paradigm 5. "Who holds the pen?" – AI and Creative Autonomy 6. CYANOTYPES: From Framework to Practice 7. Micro-Credentials: The Speed Question 8. Craft & AI: Maintaining Diversity 9. The Regional Dimension 10. CreativeStack: "Infrastructure without meaning is not worth it" (White Paper & Policy Brief) 11. Watch the Full Livestream Recording 12. What's Next? The Journey Continues 13. Take Action Now 14. A Final Thought 15. Gallery
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Last week, on May 5th, the Strategic Dialogue on European Creative Economy (#SDECE2026) took place in Brussels – and the urgency of its messages continues to resonate. With 250 participants on-site and online from across Europe, the day felt less like a traditional conference and more like a wake-up call for a sector standing at a critical turning point.
The central question wasn't whether Artificial Intelligence is transforming the creative economy – but rather who gets to shape this transformation. The answer that emerged across all sessions was uncomfortably clear: We do. Now. Or others will do it for us.
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Glen Micallef, European Commissioner for Intergenerational Fairness, Youth, Culture and Sport, opened #SDECE2026 with a welcome address that framed the day's urgency. He acknowledged the strategic moment Europe faces: the cultural and creative sectors are not peripheral to Europe's future – they are central to its competitiveness, its sovereignty, and its democratic resilience.
His message was clear: the next Multiannual Financial Framework will determine whether Europe invests in this capacity or allows it to erode. The Commission recognizes the challenge. The question is whether the sector can organize itself to meet it.
MEP Christian Ehler opened the dialogue with a message he had deliberately repeated from the previous day's Ekip Policy Event:
"We should end the plea for appreciation. In political terms, appreciation is the cheapest political promise politicians can grant."
His warning was concrete and urgent: The Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) 2028+ is being negotiated right now.
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European cultural funding is facing fundamental restructuring – shifting away from centralized EU programs toward regional partnership models. If the creative sector doesn't organize strategically, funding will flow elsewhere.
"It has to come from you," Ehler emphasized. The CCSI innovation strategy cannot be handed down from Brussels – it must be developed by the sector itself.
Barbara Revelli (ELIA / CYANOTYPES) reflected afterward:
"One message became increasingly clear: The timing matters. And we are running out of time to organise strategically as a sector. Appreciation alone does not build the capacity for transformation."
Ehler reaffirmed his long-term commitment: Europe's AI transition can only succeed if Arts, Social Sciences, and Humanities are fully integrated into research and funding structures. The most important questions around AI, he argued, are not technical:
"They concern identity, authorship, labour, and democratic resilience. We cannot build European AI on creative work that is taken without consent or compensation."
The urgency Ehler articulated is not rhetorical – it demands immediate response. BrandBrief (brandbrief.eu) is a coordinated advocacy initiative launched by CreativeFED, Time Machine, and Culture Action Europe to prevent the structural exclusion of cultural and creative industries from the European Competitiveness Fund (ECF) – the EU's flagship industrial and innovation instrument for 2028–2034.
The situation is critical: The ECF will consolidate and replace Horizon Europe, Digital Europe, InvestEU and other programmes into a single framework organized around Policy Windows. If a sector is not named in a Policy Window, it does not exist for the ECF – no dedicated calls, no governance representation, no procurement access, and no path to the multi-billion-euro funding lines that will define European industrial policy for the next decade.