Vassilis Charalampidis (President of ECHN’s Board of Directors) recently addressed the Grant Holders Meeting of Creative Europe Cooperation Projects in Brussels. His intervention “When We Create Together, We Build What Remains” reflected on how cultural cooperation can build lasting communities and ecosystems.
On 10–11 June 2026, the annual Grant Holders Meeting of Creative Europe's Cooperation Projects was organised by the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) in Brussels, bringing together representatives of ongoing projects co-funded by the Creative Europe program, and the organizations behind them.
Vassilis Charalampidis, the President of the Board of Directors of the European Creative Hubs Network (ECHN), addressed the event and facilitated one of the sessions. His contribution, titled When We Create Together, We Build What Remains: How Ideas Become Culture, explored how European cultural cooperation can generate lasting change beyond individual projects and funding cycles. As the future of European cultural funding faces uncertainty, these questions remain particularly relevant.
Drawing on the metaphor of the “moussaka” (usually perceived as a genuinely traditional Greek dish), as an example of how different influences can combine to create something new that eventually becomes tradition, Charalampidis reflected on the value of exchange, experimentation and collaboration. His subsequent analysis of the meeting's participant-led workshops identified recurring themes across the discussions, including trust, participation, community building and long-term impact.
These notions remain particularly relevant as the cultural and creative sectors face uncertainty over the future of European cultural funding. With the proposed AgoraEU programme at the centre of ongoing budget negotiations, concerns extend beyond funding levels to the conditions that enable cultural organisations and communities to develop sustainable relationships, practices and ecosystems.
In a new article for the Creatives Unite platform, the editor Matthaios Tsimitakis revisits Charalampidis's contribution and considers what the current generation of European cooperation projects can leave behind, and which of their principles and practices should carry forward into the next funding cycle.
We invite you to read the full article on Creatives Unite.
Read Vassilis Charalampidis' full speech here.
