Opportunities for European and National Funding for Bulgarian Cultural, Creative and Recreative Business

Abstract

The article is devoted to the exploring and analysis of the opportunities for European and National funding for Bulgarian cultural, creative and recreative business. In this article, the author explores different possibilities (both national and European) for project funding of culture and creative Bulgarian enterprises. The basic logic is that once an economic sector (or sectors) has been declared as strategic and priority, then special financial mechanism should be envisaged for its development. Culture and Creative Business (CCB) has become a priority for European Union, respectivelyfor European economy policy as one of the real opportunities which could act as an engine for the rest of the economic sectors. This understanding for Culture and Creative Business is entirely appropriate for small national economy such Bulgaria is. Legislative and institutional framework for Culture and Creative Industries (CCI) has been studied. Innovation Strategy for smart specialization of the Republic of Bulgaria (2014-202) as well as the National Development Programme: Bulgaria 2020 are highlighted. The article generalizes the opportunities for European funding of projects from CCI by two main points of view -business and culture. The author emphasizes that in general, Bulgarian small and medium-sized enterprises are eligible to present project proposals and suggests the special activities to promote entrepreneurship, which could be used to developed new idea. The study assumes that for Bulgarian organizations working in the CCI, the European programmes managed directly from Brussels are less interested than these programmes which are managed from Sofia. On the other hand, Bulgaria takes 7 th place so far in Junker's plan implementation which is could be consider as a step in right direction to explore all opportunities for funding.