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Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs

Cultural and Creative Industries

The cultural and creative industries (CCIs) ecosystem represents approximately 3.95% of EU value added and employs around 8 million people, including around 1.2 million firms, over 99.9% of which are small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Cultural and creative industries ecosystem

As identified by the EU Industrial Strategy, the CCIs ecosystem is an important part of Europe’s economy.

CCIs encompass a wide variety of sub-sectors. This includes architecture, archives, libraries and museums, artistic crafts, audiovisual (including film, television, video games and multimedia), tangible and intangible cultural heritage, design (including fashion design), festivals, music, literature, performing arts, (including theatre and dance), books and publishing, radio, and visual arts.

The ecosystem’s cross-sectoral impact (spill-over effects) should not be understated. For instance, CCIs play a great part in driving innovation and creativity in other industries. Moreover, the social dimension of the CCI is equally relevant. CCIs can be crucial in driving sustainable change in communities and achieving the EU Green Deal at the local level.

The Annual Single Market Report 2021 describes in detail all 14 industrial ecosystems.

The European Commission regularly monitors and analyses the functioning of the EU single market for services. The analytical work includes a confidence indicator updated every month, providing a timely indication of the state of each ecosystem at the EU level.

Economic analysis

Design, fashion, high-end industries

Design

Design as a driver of sustainable growth and prosperity has capacities to offer solutions to current and future challenges. It can help foster among others

  • climate change and sustainability
  • the digitalisation of our futures
  • growth and prosperity in Europe

Design’s role continues to increase, particularly in times of urgent transformation.

As a subsector of the cultural and creative industries ecosystem, design plays a key role in fashion, interior and architecture, for example, but also across many other industries of the EU economy e.g. textiles, mobility-automotive, construction, health etc.

Fashion and high-end industries

The fashion and high-end industries represent European cultural heritage and expertise. With 5 million people directly employed in the fashion value chain and over 1 million people employed in the high-end industries, these activities provide a major contribution to the EU economy.

The fashion and high-end industries are some of the most vibrant and creative sectors in Europe. They are present in the everyday life of millions of people and act as ambassadors of European values, such as culture, creativity, innovation, and craftsmanship. These industries form complex and interlinked value chains, from the design and manufacturing of fashion goods (such as textiles, clothing, footwear, leather, fur products, jewellery, and accessories) and high-end goods, to their distribution and retail.

These industries face several challenges, such as the growing number of counterfeit goods, the protection of intellectual property rights, increasing shortages of skilled workers as well as green and digital transition.

Report mapping sustainable fashion opportunities for SMEs

The fashion industry can make a big contribution to reaching the Paris Agreement's and the EU Green Deal’s goal of climate neutrality by 2050. With this in mind, we commissioned a report to map the current initiatives and key organisations in sustainable fashion and textiles across Europe. The report also gives an overview of opportunities and challenges related to adopting environmentally and economically sustainable business models in the fashion sector.

Useful links

Archives

What we do

The Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs supports entrepreneurship, cross-sectoral innovation, SMEs and skills in the cultural and creative industries.

See the focus of our main actions below.

Capacity-building tools for CCIs SMEs and entrepreneurs

The Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (DG GROW) offers capacity-building tools to support cultural and creative industry SMEs and entrepreneurs.

These tools provide information and resources on various topics like access to finance, sustainability, digitalisation, intellectual property, and skills, to foster growth and competitiveness in the single market.

Infographic

This infographic highlights key EU solutions for creative entrepreneurs and SMEs, covering areas such as access to finance, business development, innovation, skills, and intellectual property.

See the infographic with solutions.

Contact

GROW-CREATIVE-INDUSTRIESatec [dot] europa [dot] eu (Grow-Creative-Industries[at]ec[dot]europa[dot]eu)