Background information

The Dutch government presented a package of emergency measures to support businesses and workers during the corona crisis. The cultural and creative sector appears especially badly hit by the crisis and this has led to extra measures being taken. On 27 March, the Minister for Education, Culture, and Science sent a letter to Parliament explaining the need for and content of the planned measures.

Following this first letter on plans to initiate a package of measures, a few weeks later, the announcement was made (after lobbying form the cultural and creative sector), that more support was needed. The Minister for Education, Culture and science announced on 15 April that more financing would be provided to the sector, in the amount of €300 million.

Several plans were later published in May 2020 which indicated what the extra financial injection would be used for.

Content of measure

This particular measure aims to provide extra subsidies to some 70 cultural institutions which form the foundation of Dutch cultural infrastructure. These institutions receive standard subsidies for a programming period of 2017 to 2020. With this measure, these institutes receive extra subsidies due to the COVID-19 crisis to help these institutes to survive and to continue to offer their services to the public. The extra subsidy per institute is no more than three times the size of the subsidy received by the institute in 2018. The financing goes through one of the 6 main National cultural funds in the Netherlands. In total the Ministry of Education, Cultural and Science puts aside €113 million and the six main funds another €40 million so that the total budget for this measure is €153 million.

Use of measure

No information available yet.

Target groups

Workers	Businesses	Citizens
Does not apply to workers	Sector specific set of companies	Does not apply to citizens

Actors and funding

Actors	Funding
National government Social partners jointly	National funds Social partners jointly

Social partners

Social partners' role in designing the measure and form of involvement:

	Trade unions	Employers' organisations
Role	Consulted	Consulted
Form	Consultation through tripartite or bipartite social dialogue bodies	Consultation through tripartite or bipartite social dialogue bodies

Social partners' role in the implementation, monitoring and assessment phase:

• Social partners jointly
• Main level of involvement: Peak or cross-sectoral level

Involvement

The main peak level social partners have been involved in developing the emergency packages of March 2020 and the second of May 2020. These measures were of a general nature. The cultural and creative sector social partners lobbied for more specific support at the beginning of the crisis as their sector was particularly vulnerable and hard hit by the crisis. As such the government agreed to attribute extra funding to these sector.

Views and reactions

Social partners are satisfied with the extra support being provided by the government.

Sectors and occupations

This case is not occupation-specific.

Sources

• 27 March 2020: Kamerbrief over steun voor het culturele en creatieve veld – March 27th 2020 (www.rijksoverheid.nl)