[text DN Madeira]

APCA is the only Portuguese entity that is part of the winning consortium of the European Commission's pilot project, through DG Regio, which will create the first European system of direct funding for the arts and cultural agents in the European Outermost Regions.

The Achipel.eu consortium was created in 2020 by the APCA, the Institut Français and the OCTA - Association of Overseas Countries and Territories of the European Union, with eight other applications from European public and private bodies competing, namely joint applications from the Regional Governments of Madeira , Azores and Canary Islands. This is the first time that a Madeiran entity linked to the cultural sector plays such an important role with the European Union, which has recognized “the innovative work that APCA has developed since 2005, namely in the various European projects and events that the association has promoted.

”This consortium follows an invitation that the European Commission launched in 2020 to carry out a pilot project aimed at safeguarding and promoting Culture in the ultra-peripheral regions and in the overseas countries and territories with the aim of establishing a mechanism specific financial support for artists and cultural organizations and institutions residing in these regions and countries. The program will have a global funding of 1 million Euros, with most of it being invested in financial support for cultural projects and initiatives that will be implemented through calls for projects with the aim of contributing to the safeguarding, promotion and support local and indigenous culture, popular arts and practices, and the ancestral culture of these regions.

The implementation of activities to improve cultural dialogue, exchanges between regions, through artistic mobility, including virtual projects, are other actions supported by the project.

Based on this experience, the main output consists of a structural report for the European Commission, which will help define the Union's future policy to support culture in the outermost regions and overseas territories and countries.