Europe’s True Advantage: Creativity

Europe doesn’t have cheap labour. It doesn’t have abundant raw materials. What it does have — in extraordinary concentration — is cultural depth, artistic talent and a creative capacity that other regions cannot easily imitate.

“Our only real competitive advantage is our brains and creativity,” says Harald Hartung former Head of Unit for Research on Culture, Creativity and Innovation at the European Commission and author to “Unleashing the potential of the cultural and creative industries” 

Harald Hartung

CCIs contribute more to Europe’s GDP than many realise — more than automotive production in some countries, more than agriculture in others. But their true potential lies in their spillovers like gaming technologies strengthening virtual training for pilots, fashion driving material innovation or architecture shaping climate adaptation.

“In saturated global markets, it’s no longer the classical good that makes the difference — it’s the story behind it,” says Harald Hartung.

Spillover effect

Take Apple, often seen as the epitome of American tech dominance.

“Apple married culture and art with technology from the start,” “That is why their products sell for triple the price of competitors. Europe may lack a single Apple-scale success story, but it has something else: a vast cultural and creative industries (CCI) that many countries would envy — if only the EU could learn to use it strategically.”

Finland is perhaps the most compelling example.

“Hundreds, if not thousands, of micro gaming companies have emerged. Their expertise spills into virtual and augmented reality, training simulations, and industrial innovation.”

And within music industry 50% of US chart hits in some years were composed or produced by Swedes, a success that did not happen by accident but emerged from decades of investment in local music schools, community programmes and structured talent development across the country.

Belgium did the same with fashion. The Antwerp Six became a global phenomenon not because of luck, but because the region invested in education, experimentation and identity.

Right actors at the right moment

Europe faces extreme pressures: climate, defence, geopolitics and demographic shifts.

“Everybody is calling for money,” says Harald Hartung “But the challenge is not the amount — it’s making it available to the right actors at the right time.”

And the right actors are in culture: artists who translate the climate crisis into lived experience, designers reinventing sustainability, technologists who understand heritage, architects who design for resilience.

“Art helps us understand complexity,” is Harald Hartungs belief. “It connects disciplines that otherwise stay locked in their silos.”

The Americans learned this early.

“In Silicon Valley, artists and engineers work at the same level. They co-create solutions from the beginning. Europe could learn from this.”

If Europe is serious about global competitiveness, CCIs cannot remain at the margins of policy.

“This is not cultural decoration – it is the core of our economic model.”

Europe does allocate significant resources to CCIs — but in a way so fragmented and opaque that even experts get lost.

“The landscape of funding is so scattered that even I couldn’t get the full overview. If I can’t, how can a small company? The problem isn’t a lack of money. It’s that the money is locked in silos, difficult to gain access to.

Open up structural funds

Meanwhile, Europe is negotiating its new €175 billion Horizon Europe research and innovation budget.

“Now is the moment to influence it,” Harald Hartung stresses “If Sweden, if local governments, if universities don’t speak up now, the next decade of funding will bypass CCIs if not combined financing modalities will be put in place.”

Because despite their economic weight, CCIs are still not considered eligible in many national allocations of EU structural funds — particularly the smart specialization strategies that shape regional development.

“My plea is to open structural funds to the CCIs. They are SMEs, they drive spillover, and they generate growth. But it´s up to the member states to decide.”

Many dots – no framework

The other problem is Europe’s chronic inability to work across sectors.

“We have many dots — good dots — but no framework to connect them. We don’t need new bureaucracies. We need an ecosystem.”

Harald Hartung highlights ekip as a major building block in creating the ecosystem we need in Europe. While other EU platforms exist – none works directly on policy development with a level of systemic ambition.

“In my view, ekip is laying the cornerstones — developing policy, testing ideas, and making them public.”

It is the first bottom-up ecosystem for cultural innovation: gathering cities, practitioners, researchers, intermediaries, and policymakers into an ecosystem that acts more like a laboratory than a committee room.

“You need an atmosphere favorable to risk-taking and imagination, and ekip creates exactly that.”

Its work gives policymakers something they often lack: grounded evidence of how creativity can transform cities, industries and social systems — not in theory, but in practice.

ekip, if sustained and integrated, could become the vehicle that drives this shift — the bridge between creativity and innovation, between imagination and industry emphasizes Harald Hartung.

“Supporting the creative economy is not a cost –it is an investment in Europe’s future competitiveness.”

Harald Hartung´s analyse on what the CCI in Europe need:

• A political decision to treat CCIs as a strategic sector, not a ‘nice-to-have’.
  • A shared ecosystem linking EU, national and regional actors around innovation.
  • Joint programmes between DGs, not simply information exchange.
  • Long-term structures, not project-based funding that ends abruptly.

Harald Hartung participated at Round Table on Innovation Polices for the Cultural and Creatives Sectors and Industries, hosted by ekip and Riksteatern.