Europeana launched an online petition campaign, after budget cuts, to convince the EU to continue to fund it. The text of the petition reads:
“Sign our petition to keep Europe’s culture open to everyone online
Please sign our petition to convince the European Union to continue to fund Europeana. It’s easy and only takes seconds – just follow the link and enter your name and email address. Please then share it with your friends so that they can do the same.
Why are we asking for your help? Because the budget under which Europeana was to be funded from 2015 onwards has been slashed from 9 billion euros to 1 billion. We are still in the running but we are now in direct competition with e-health, e-justice and safer internet programmes. If we lose the funding, much of the hard work we have put in will be wasted.
As regular eNews readers, you know (and hopefully love) what we do. Here’s a quick recap of exactly what that is…
Europeana works with galleries, libraries, archives and museums in every European country to make knowledge and culture available online. We connect everyone in Europe with their shared history and heritage – 27 million books, pictures, films and recordings so far. With our partners across Europe, we’re pioneering new ways to engage people in culture through websites, apps, software and social media, through sharing our expertise, business models and code, and through services for education and tourism. Europe needs our innovation – there’s faster progress in the digital sector than most other areas of the economy.
Supporting Europeana is supporting Europe. None of us can afford to lose a service that is both good for people and good for the economy. So please pledge your support by signing the petition and sharing it however and wherever you can.
The petition is available in English, French and German.
For other ways to support us and for the latest news on our progress, follow Europeana #AllezCulture on Twitter, join our Facebook group or visit our dedicated campaign web page.
Don’t forget to share the petition with your friends! Thanks from all at Europeana”.