Minister Bruins (Education, Culture and Science) made agreements with provinces, municipalities and cultural regions[2] in nine[1] cultural covenants for the period 2025-2028. For the first time, all 12 provinces are represented in this. The covenants contain agreements between the ministry and the co-governments, based on the shared interest of culture, on joint responsibility for the cultural sector and mutual cooperation in the field of culture. The covenants were signed during ESNS (Eurosonic Noorderslag), an annual music festival in Groningen.
Eppo Bruins, Minister of Education, Culture and Science: "Culture is pre-eminently something that belongs to all of us. We therefore make agreements with various governments about the use of cultural policy and the priorities we give it. The focus on talent has an important role to play in this, where we especially want to give creative makers room to develop. This is how we work on the foundation of a lively and future-proof cultural sector."
In the covenants, OCW and the co-governments agree on joint cultural priorities. This strengthens the cultural sector across the country. For instance, all covenants set out the subsidies to multiyear supported institutions and make agreements on compliance with cultural codes, fair remuneration for creators, the importance of talent development and the handling of public collections. In addition, specific agreements are made to suit the needs of individual regions. The nine covenants provide a solid basis for valuable cooperation between governments in the field of culture over the next four years. The covenant agreements contribute to the local creative climate, allowing regional talent networks such as, for example, Music Hub NORTH in We The North and PLAN Brabant in BrabantStad to develop.
The nine cultural covenants were signed on 17 January 2025 during ESNS, an annual music festival and conference in Groningen that showcases European and Dutch music talent and brings together music professionals to learn about new developments in the music industry.
[1] The covenant areas with which agreements have been made are Flevoland, Landsdeel Oost, Limburg, Noord-Brabant, Noord-Holland, Utrecht, We the North, Zeeland and Zuid-Holland. [2] The culture regions are collaborations between provinces and municipalities on cultural policy. There are 19 culture regions spread across the Netherlands.
