Ladies and gentlemen,
Dear friends,
Thank you for coming in such large numbers for this press conference.
As you know, the budget I am presenting for 2016 is increasing. I announced it in July. The Prime Minister gave his word, and that word is being kept today.
Next year, the budget allocated by the State to culture and communication will increase by 2.7% compared to the 2015 Finance Act, which is €190 million more than this year. The Ministry’s budget will actually reach €7.3 billion in 2016.
Increasing the Nation’s contribution to the cultural life of our country is always an important act. In the time we are going through, I see much more.
At a time when we are determined to fix the public accounts, it is a clear sign that culture is a government priority.
At a time when France is being worked by deep currents, which distance us from each other, this is the mark of a strong conviction.
The conviction that in the face of the world that comes, withdrawal is not the solution.
The conviction that culture and the media offer a part of the solution.
Because culture is both that space that brings us together and that bond that frees us.
Because by opening ourselves more to ourselves, culture also opens us more to others.
Because a free press, which has the means to act independently, is absolutely fundamental to democratic life.
Our budget for culture in 2016 is France’s budget after “Charlie”.
The budget of a France that knows how to rely on culture to advance, invent, innovate and prepare for the future.
A France that is proud of its artists, and that is committed to growing the creative abundance that makes its strength, opening it up even more to young people and youth.
Of a France that knows that it will have all the more confidence that its citizens will be able to participate in cultural life.
So this budget is not only increasing for 2016, because culture and media are a priority for the government, but it is also a concrete translation of the priorities I have given the Department: access for all to culture, creation, preparation for the future.
It gives a special place to youth, which is the first concern of the President of the Republic.
It will also allow us to implement new measures, included in the bill for creative freedom, architecture and heritage, which I am introducing in the National Assembly this week.
Everything will be ready for the French cultural daily life to change.
Strengthening access to culture for all is our first ambition and our first commitment.
We have devoted a significant part of the budget effort to this: since the beginning of the five-year period, appropriations will have increased by 31%: €75 million in 2012, compared to almost €100 million in 2016 – whether it be arts and culture education, conservatories, action in the territories, alongside the local authorities, and in particular towards the most remote audiences of culture. That’s 20% more than last year.
Our priority in this area is youth. You know that arts and cultural education will henceforth be enshrined in law as a major objective of cultural policies. Again this year, I wanted to see a strong increase in this sector to show how important it is to the government. Our share of the budget will therefore increase by 34% compared to 2015 to reach €54.6 million – more than 80% compared to 2012. We are delivering on our commitment.
This commitment has very concrete consequences. By reserving access to the Louvre Museum, the Musée d'Orsay and the Château de Versailles on the day of closure for children and audiences who are furthest away from culture, we also offer them better access to the works and excellent conditions to discover them. This effort of openness, which was a commitment of the President of the Republic, is financed by my Ministry. Positions will be gradually created in these institutions to make this opening possible.
Strengthening access to culture for all is also about building on places of learning and discovery – and I am thinking in particular of conservatories. The State will once again be at their side. €13.5 million will be dedicated to them in 2016. That’s €8 million more than in 2015. In particular, we want to see a greater diversity of disciplines taught: this is enshrined in the creation bill.
Strengthening access to culture for all means ensuring a greater diversity of the disciplines taught, but it means opening up more broadly to ambitious projects that take into account today’s practices to rethink access to culture. As you know, this is the objective of the EAC plan, which will receive €4.5 million in additional appropriations.
The Demos project is a good example of these projects that start from today’s practices, and especially amateur practices. It promotes access to musical practice in the orchestra, for children who live in areas of city politics or in rural areas. The team behind him, in Ile-de-France, Isère and Aisne, is doing a great job that I want to salute today. We will further support them by increasing our contribution to their project by €1.5 million.
Increasing access to culture for all means paying special attention to territories and inhabitants who feel illegitimate in places of culture, or who are the furthest away from them. This, for example, is the objective of the territorial-reading contracts, whose endowment we have wished to double. In particular, they make it possible to finance public reading projects in the media libraries.
Strengthening access to culture for all means finally paying special attention to local media. They offer a different and valuable perspective on current events. Funding for the support fund, established this year, will be sustainable next year.
The second commitment I made was to strengthen public support for creation.
Here too, our loans have increased: they will increase by €12.7m compared to 2015 to reach €400m [by €15m compared to the amount forecast in the triennial for 2016]. In addition to this funding dedicated to the performing arts and visual arts, we must also add the film tax credit, the amount of which will be doubled to reach nearly €100 million. Both pursue the same objective: to ensure that France remains a land of creation, abundant and alive. A land of diverse and renewed creation, in the image of our artists. A country where art and culture create jobs and contribute to the development of our country and its influence throughout the world.
Here again, our priority is youth. I initiated, as you remember, the Assises de la Jeune Création last spring. In June, their participants gave me a series of proposals to improve the working conditions of young artists and their integration into the world of art and creation.
As of January 2016, the Ministry will finance measures resulting from this work, to the tune of €7.1 million.
They will strengthen artistic employment and help renew generations and aesthetics. They are therefore mainly dedicated to independent companies and groups, and strengthen their relations with certified and intermediate locations
I am thinking in particular of artistic companionship and third-place, whose role in artistic identification is essential (€2.5 million), the development of residencies (€3 million), or the support of the development of young creators, via fablabs, artistic incubators backed by schools of higher education culture, or web-based resource platforms (€1.6M).
We are also preparing for the creation of a new place, which will be emblematic of my policy in favour of creation, youth and access to cultural life for all. I want to talk about the Médicis Clichy-Montfermeil project. I made a commitment that it would already be visible and present on the territory by next January. The mission is working on that. We will finance its prefiguration up to €1 million. This is a real project for the future, which makes visible the creation and cultural practices as they are emerging today.
Since our priority is young creation, our support also goes to their training. To support the creation of tomorrow, we need reformed schools that are increasingly dynamic and open to the world. In particular, our aim is for teachers in the higher education network to become teachers and researchers. This will be done for our architecture schools next year, which will result in 30 additional positions.
We also owe it to future artists preparing to enter these schools to live in better conditions, including access to student social security, scholarships and housing. All this is enshrined in the bill creation, with the recognition by accreditation of public preparatory classes to art schools. Some are already working on it.
An abundant artistic creation benefits of course the influence of the territories, their competitiveness and their development. This is also the case for cinema, whose dynamism is based on professionals and companies whose skills are no longer to be proven. Improving the film tax credit will allow us to further support them and relocate filmmaking in our region. It will therefore benefit employment and activity. I recall that 1 € of tax credit generates 11 € of investment in the territory, and 3.6 € of tax and social revenue for the State.
In 2016, the tax credit will be open to works with a strong cultural dimension, which are shot in a language other than French for artistic reasons, as well as ambitious animation productions or with strong visual effects, which are internationally oriented. I had announced at the beginning of the month that I was working there, this work is now completed.
The rate will be increased to 30% for French-language cinematographic works, animated films and fiction with strong visual effects.
Finally, the tax credit limit for the same cinematographic work will be increased to €30 million instead of the current €4 million.
You all had the shooting of Valerian in the lead. There are many others. With this new device, Jimmy P., Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian by Arnaud Desplechin or Personal Shopper Olivier Assayas, could have been shot in France. This measure will therefore benefit some large-budget films, which mobilize the most cutting-edge industries in our film sector, but also smaller-budget productions with a strong artistic ambition.
In addition, CNC resources will be stabilized at €672m. In accordance with the government’s commitments, there will be no cap on taxes levied on the audiovisual broadcasting market, and there will be no drain. The maintenance of the means of the support fund for cinema, audiovisual and multimedia will make it possible to finance actions in favor of citizenship and civic service, priority of the President of the Republic, support for the distribution of films, as well as automatic and selective support that make it possible to structure the French film and audiovisual sectors and support their diversity.
This year marks the 120th anniversary of the first film screening in Paris. Today, the members of the Fédération Nationale des Cinémas Français, gathered in Deauville, are celebrating their anniversary. We remain faithful to this special place that we occupy in the history of cinema, and of which we are so proud. With the choices we make, France will continue to impose itself in the future as one of the great nations of film creation.
The priority given to creation finally concerns music. In 2015, the increase in the tax cap for the Centre national de la chanson, des variétés et du jazz was a strong signal for the recorded music industry.
In 2016, we will go further.
The SMAC plan will be completed with more resources than was planned when it was launched in 2011.
We will also support those who commit to young creation and musical diversity through the extension of the phonographic tax credit.
We will also support small music labels in adapting their model to digital, by sustaining the innovation support fund, which will also benefit small platforms.
This digital transformation has already been underway for a long time for music. Tomorrow, it will be a major challenge for all culture. We need to build the capacity to make the most of it. It’s a work in progress.
We will work with music industry professionals to strengthen the means of support for the export of French music. In order to develop a coordinated and ambitious policy, our funding for the French Music Export Office will be increased by half a million euros.
Giving us the means to enter the world that comes is precisely my third ambition. The bill on creation also addresses this in part – I am thinking, for example, of a more equitable sharing of digital revenues and the work of clarifying relations between performers, producers and broadcasters. or between the different actors of the cinema.
These changes, so that they are just and equitable, we must give ourselves the means to accompany them when they are already at work, and to prepare them when they take shape. This is the third pillar of this draft budget.
Preparing for the future means ensuring that all stakeholders have the medium-term visibility they need for their financing. The amount of appropriations delegated to the drac will increase by 2.2% to €780 million in 2016. It is the assurance that the reorganization of the regional directorates of the Ministry, concerned by the territorial reform, will continue with preserved means. It is also a guarantee of mutual trust and serenity towards our partners, starting with the local and regional authorities, who help us to live culture everywhere in France.
This is also the meaning of the cultural covenants that I have already signed with some 40 communities since the beginning of the year - the latest in Gennevilliers last week. All those who undertake to maintain their funding for culture in the next three years will also be able to count on the State’s funding to be maintained at the same level. There will be other pacts, with strengthened means. It is also proof that culture is always a political choice.
Preparing for the future means ensuring that public broadcasting resources are sustainable and secure, so that it can meet its needs while maintaining its independence.
This is the choice we made by basing its financing on stable and identified revenues: the telecom tax, which we increased by 0.3 pts, and the royalty, the amount of which changes with inflation, as provided by the law, and which will increase by 1€ next year. Of course, the public broadcasting organizations must continue in parallel the management efforts they have undertaken over the past few years, and strengthen their cooperation.
This securing of resources is not incompatible with a boost on global resources: public broadcasting will thus benefit from a €16 million increase in funding for 2016.
Preparing for the future means ensuring that our model of preventive archaeology, also recognized and praised around the world, works with equal efficiency. We wanted, as you know, to strengthen it through the law. The State will in particular scientifically guarantee archaeological excavations.
The budgeting of the archaeology fee (RAP) to the tune of €118 million will guarantee the stabilization of the financing of diagnostic activities carried out by the national institute for preventive archaeological research (INRAP).
The tax will continue to be paid by the developers, but it will be paid directly to the general state budget. Local and regional authorities that have approved archaeological services for carrying out diagnostics will benefit from a stabilized and predictable allocation, financed directly from the State budget. These credits will also ensure a more regular operation of the National Fund for Preventive Archaeology (FNAP) to help fund excavations related to general interest developments.
Preparing for the future means preserving public investment, which remains a lever for development for culture and the territories. In 2016, we will spend €524 million on it. This is an increase of 1.4% compared to 2015.
The effort in favour of historic monuments will be maintained in 2016 for the third consecutive year. Commitment authorizations will increase by €10 million compared to 2015, reaching €338 million. This is a strong signal that the government intends to send to support investment in this area. And because we know that monuments benefit to economic attractiveness and employment in the territories, this increase will focus in particular on decentralized credits.
Of course, other projects will be launched or continued in 2016, all over France. I am thinking in particular of the archives sector, which is facing a major need for preservation and accessibility, the preparation of the move of the École nationale supérieure d'architecture de Marseille to the future Mediterranean Institute of the City and Territories, the master plans of the Palace of Versailles, Fontainebleau, and the Centre Pompidou and the renovation of the BPI.
It is customary to say, dear friends, that a project without a budget is not a project. I would say the reverse is also true: a budget without a project is not a budget.
Without priorities, without deliberate choices, a budget is not political; it is simply a manager.
The one we are presenting to you today, which reaches €7.3 billion for 2016, is a political project. Concrete proof that culture and the media are one of the government’s top priorities at a difficult and demanding time for our country.
It is an act of trust, especially towards artists and towards youth.
Whether it is the €2.9 billion earmarked for culture and research, the €3.9 billion earmarked for public broadcasting, or the €530 million earmarked for the press, radio diversity, books and cultural industries, they all have the same objective: to remove the barriers that weigh on our society and on creation, to ensure that those who feel a desire for culture – a desire to do as a desire to share – have the opportunity to do so, and continue to do so in the future.