At its Brussels launch on Saturday 3 March, culture commissioner Ján Figel' will invite attendees to help shape the new programme. This exchange of ideas will take place at Brxl Bravo (Brussels, 2-4 March), an arts festival bringing together over a hundred artists from all branches of the arts.

Here the public will have the chance to help build a common cultural area - a venture that will require substantial input from Europe's creative artists, cultural players and institutions. The programme will focus its funding on cultural projects, European cultural bodies and promotional/information activities.

The 2007-13 programme follows on from the EU's "Culture 2000", which provided grants to cultural cooperation projects in all artistic and cultural fields (performing arts, plastic and visual arts, literature, heritage and cultural history). One of its flagship projects was the European capital of culture.

Besides its general impact, the cultural sector has also proven to be economically strategic, responsible for millions of jobs. In 2004 it employed at least 5.8m people, with recent figures charting an increase to 7.2m and a general upward curve. With 2003 turnover of some €654bn, it contributed 2.6% of the EU's GDP.

Trends in the last decade show "digital culture" set to develop vigorously, thanks to the virtuous circle between culture and technology (multimedia, e-commerce, telecommunications). While the sector will act as an important employment booster, challenges involving education and training still need to be faced.