Culture 2000 aims to promote cultural diversity by encouraging co-operation between Member States and participating countries, in particular by supporting artistic creation and preserving the common cultural heritage. A budget of 167 million euro was agreed in December 1999, divided as follows:

• up to 45 per cent for specific innovative or experimental actions;
• at least 35 per cent for integrated actions;
• 10 per cent for special cultural events;
• 10 per cent for remaining expenditure.

EEA, Cyprus and the CEE associated countries will be able to participate in Culture 2000.

Culture 2000 operates by issuing fixed deadline Calls for Proposals. Projects are required to be European in scope, and multi-country participation is expected. Further information on Culture 2000 Calls are available from the EC's official web site:
http://europa.eu.int/comm/culture/index_en.html.
Information is also available from the UK Cultural Contact Point, EUCLID:
http://www.euclid.co.uk.

A Call for Proposals for 2002 projects was issued on 15 August 2001 with deadlines of 15 November 2001 for all annual projects and 30 November 2001 for all multi-annual cooperation agreements projects.

A Call for 2001 projects was issued on 24 January 2001, after some delay, with closing dates of 4 April 2001 for one year projects and 15 May 2001 for two to three year projects. Under the January 2001 Call, projects could be in one of four main cultural areas: projects focused on the 'history and culture of the peoples of Europe' (which could cover any cultural area); heritage based projects, including museums; performing and visual arts based projects; literature based projects.

A Call for Proposals was published in April 2000 with a closing date of 31 May 2000. Results of this Spring 2000 Call are available at:
http://europa.eu.int/comm/culture/index_en.html.
A total of 1,023 applications were received, from which 219 projects were chosen. Fifty UK institutions were represented among the partners in the successful projects.

Results of the earlier 1999 Pilot Projects action are available for download on the EUCLID web site:
http://www.euclid.co.uk/panfund/06.html.

In addition to the Culture 2000 programme, support for cultural projects may be available through the Structural Funds.