The European Commission has approved the Culture National Programme 2021-2027.

The National Programme (NP) pursues the aims of the European and national cohesion policy 2021-2027, in coherence with the National Strategy for Sustainable Development, converging towards the goals set in the European Partnership Agreement (PA) ‘for a climate-neutral economy (European Green Deal) and for a just and inclusive society (European Social Pillar) in the broader context of adherence to the UN 2030 Agenda’, where culture plays a transversal role in all dimensions of sustainable development.

The context in which the programming is grafted is characterised by social and territorial disparities, accentuated by the effects of the pandemic and the consequences of the climate crisis that have manifested themselves in Europe and Italy in recent years.

The NP therefore aims to support the recovery of the economic system in the cultural sector affected by the effects of the pandemic, also responding to the challenges indicated in the 2020 Country Specific Recommendations and in Annex D of the 2019 Country Report, which recognises the role of cultural heritage and the cultural and creative sector in territorial development policies.

The Programme is an expression of the consolidation of the role attributed in national cohesion policies to the cultural sector as a factor capable of producing significant effects in the processes of territorial development of the country ( in particular the South of Italy). However, with respect to the 2014-2020 NOP Culture and Development, the new programme presents substantial differences induced both by the substantial investments programmed in the cultural sector by the NRRP, which allow the ERDF programme to move towards decidedly more innovative and experimental dimensions, and by the same innovations introduced in the cohesion policy regulations for the 21-27 cycle, which have extended the role attributed to culture in development policies towards objectives of social inclusion.