Moldova has withdrawn from the European Union’s “Creative Europe” funding program dedicated to supporting creative, cultural and audiovisual sectors, Minister of Culture Sergiu Prodan told Rlive.

The reason, according to the minister, is that Moldova got very few project proposals accepted for funding, while the membership fees were quite large. In four years of being a member in this program, Moldova paid over 400,000 euros in membership fees, while receiving only 38,000 euros in funding.

Still, Prodan said joining Creative Europe was “a step forward”. “It’s just that our society at that time was not mature enough to take advantage of these opportunities that opened up”.

“Unfortunately, we have contributed more to European culture financially than we have profited from. Few projects were accepted, two or three. As far as I know, during that period, considerable efforts were made to educate, to explain how to write a project proposal, how to apply, what the eligibility criteria were, and what advantages one needed showcase to make a successful application”, the minister said.

Prodan added that the small number of projects accepted by the EU jury “speaks of the fact that our cultural projects, from a European point of view, are still immature”.

“On the other hand, we have basically the same funding for Moldova, I’m talking about the annual projects for non-commercial organizations, their funding through the Ministry of Culture, and there are a lot of them here”, the minister added.

The agreement that made Moldova a participant in the Creative Europe Program was signed in March 2015.