Budget Bill 2022, about one billion euros on interventions for culture

Amounting to about 1 billion euros, the interventions affecting culture that have been included in the Draft Budget Law 2022: the maneuver was approved Thursday by the Council of Ministers, and now it will be submitted to Parliament for consideration. In fact, the bill will have to be approved by both the House and the Senate by Dec. 31 in order to take effect. The government’s proposal envisages expenditures of 23.4 billion euros (compared to 40 last year: however, last year we were in the midst of a coronavirus emergency): culture, to which an entire title is dedicated (Title VIII, where culture figures along with tourism, information and innnovation, articles 105-115 of the text approved by the Council of Ministers), is to receive 1.05 billion euros for the year 2022 alone. Of course, the figures and contents may change during the discussion in Parliament.

Let’s look at the measures in detail. It starts with Art. 105(measures for cinema and culture), with the fund provided by the 2016 Franceschini Law for the development of investments in cinema and audiovisuals being increased by an additional 110 million euros: the minimum annual amount of the fund, in 2016 of 400 million euros, will now start at 750 million euros. In addition, as of 2022, the Single Fund for Performing Arts is increased by an additional 20 million euros, thus exceeding 400 million euros annually. There is then an increase of 30 million euros for each of the years 2022 and 2023 to promote reading and support the book publishing industry (resources are allocated to libraries of the state, territorial entities and institutes for the purchase of books by turning primarily to bookstores in their territories). The same article also increases by 20 million euros, for 2022 and 2023, the allocation of the Culture Fund established by the Relaunch Decree in May 2020 to promote investment in tangible and intangible cultural heritage and open to the participation of private entities.

Article 106 introduces the Fund for Temporary Economic Support of Performing Arts Workers - SET, with an initial endowment of 20 million euros in 2022 and 40 million euros annually from 2023. SET is one of the measures included in the new welfare of entertainment workers, which redesigns workers’ protections taking into account the specificities of a sector in which the employment relationship is structurally discontinuous due to the objective nature of the performance and not due to employer or worker choice. In the parliamentary iteration and in the linked entertainment bill in the Senate, the resources of the fund will be increased and the criteria and modalities of SET disbursement will be defined.

Article 107 deals with the development of small villages and inland areas. It begins with the exemption from municipal tax for the properties of commercial activities located in municipalities with a population of less than 500 inhabitants: this, the text reads, “in order to promote tourism development and counter commercial desertification and abandonment of the territories.” For the same purposes, the state, regions, autonomous provinces and local authorities can grant on loan real estate owned by them, not used for institutional purposes, to traders and artisans. These facilities are financed with 10 million for each of the years 2022 and 2023.

We then move on to App18 (so in the text of the bill, also called 18app): it talks about the €500 culture bonus for 18-year-olds, which is stabilized and made permanent, with a maximum allocation of 230 million for 2022. Article 109 is dedicated to the Lyric Symphonic Foundations: a new fund for the rehabilitation of lyric symphonic foundations is established with an allocation of 100 million euros for the year 2022 and 50 million euros for 2023. Article 110, on the other hand, deals with the upgrading and adaptation of the buildings of the State Archives: “in order to ensure the preservation and enjoyment of the archival heritage,” the bill says, “the expenditure of 25 million euros for 2022, 45 million euros for 2023, 20 million euros for 2024 and 10 million euros for 2025 is authorized for the purchase of buildings for the State Archives and for the implementation of fire and seismic upgrading of archival institutions.”

In Article 111, the Single National Fund for Tourism is established in the current part, with an allocation of 90 million euros for the year 2022, 120 million euros for the year 2023, and 40 million euros for the year 2024. The resources will be used to adopt safeguard measures for economic operators in the sector capable of enhancing the sector’s potential in the face of the effects of systemic or sectoral crises, concentrating the measures in favor of operators for whom conditions remain that limit the ordinary possibility of carrying out productive and working activities, and to promote tourism development policies capable of producing positive economic and social repercussions on the territories concerned and for the productive and social categories involved. Also Article 111 establishes a single national capital account tourism fund, with an allocation of 30 million euros for the year 2022, 100 million euros for the year 2023, and 50 million euros for each of the years 2024 and 2025: the objective is to crement the country’s tourist attractiveness, also in relation to the organization of events and manifestations, including sports events, connoted by marked tourist importance, guaranteeing positive social, economic and employment effects on the territories and for the categories concerned.

Article 112 allocates 100 million euros for the years 2021 and 2022 for the Fund for the indemnification of travel tickets issued by Alitalia under extraordinary administration, while Article 113 is dedicated to the Publishing Fund, established at the Ministry of Economy and Finance, with an allocation of 90 million for 2022 and 140 million for 2023. The fund is intended to incentivize investments by publishing companies, including newly established ones, oriented toward technological innovation and digital transition, the entry of young qualified professionals in the field of new media, as well as to support corporate restructuring and social shock absorbers and to support the demand for information. Article 114, on the other hand, makes available a maximum of 60 million euros for 2022 and 2023 for the tax credit for the purchase of newsprint, while Article 115 allocates 100 million to the Fund for Technological Innovation and Digitization. Finally, Article 8 extends the “Facade Bonus” through 2022. The tax credit, which was 90 percent for 2021, is remodeled to 60 percent.

“Cultural policies are central to the government’s economic policy choices,” Culture Minister Dario Franceschini commented at the end of the Council of Ministers meeting that approved the draft budget law for 2022. “From the strengthening of funds for cinema and audiovisuals, to new resources to counter the depopulation of villages and small towns in inland areas, regulations for libraries, archives and bookstores, funds for the protection of cultural heritage, income support for entertainment workers to the extension of the facade bonus, albeit remodeled to 60 percent for 2022, all cultural sectors see an increase in state investment and intervention.”

Image: Palazzo Chigi. Ph. Credit

Budget Bill 2022, about one billion euros on interventions for culture

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