Cultural groups oppose plan to freeze state culture prizes

Estonian cultural organisations have criticised a plan to leave state culture prize amounts unchanged, ERR reported. A draft regulation prepared by the Ministry of Culture would set the lifetime achievement prize at 64,000 euros and the annual prize for outstanding work made public during the previous calendar year at 9,600 euros.

“The prize amounts will not be changed and will be kept at the same level as in previous years,” the explanatory memorandum to the draft says.

The plan has angered both the Estonian Performers’ Union and the Estonian Union for Dance Art and Dance Education.

Urmas Ambur, executive director of the Estonian Performers’ Union, told Culture Minister Heidy Purga that the value of the culture prizes should be reviewed. He said the lifetime achievement prize had been set at one million kroons in 2008, which corresponded to approximately 64,000 euros when Estonia adopted the euro.

“The 64,000-euro prize proposed in the draft therefore effectively dates from 2008, and its real value has not been updated to reflect the rise in prices over nearly two decades,” Ambur said. He added that the 9,600-euro annual prize was based on an earlier award of 150,000 kroons.

Monika Tomingas, executive director of the Estonian Union for Dance Art and Dance Education, also said that support should reflect real-life conditions and change over time.

“Compared with 2012, inflation in the euro area has been 36 percent, and 9,000 euros in 2012 is comparable to 12,000 euros in 2026,” Tomingas said. She suggested that the amounts could, if possible, be linked to the minimum salary for cultural workers. Under such a system, 12,000 euros could be defined in the regulation as seven times the minimum salary for cultural workers.

Ambur said that, with the full-time minimum monthly wage standing at 946 euros this year, the state culture annual prize is already lower than the 12-month gross salary of a person earning the minimum wage.

He questioned whether a 9,600-euro prize still reflects the weight and significance of the recognition in the current economic climate. Ambur said state culture prizes were changed only at very long intervals and that, if the amounts were not to be reviewed regularly, future changes in the value of money and general price levels should be taken into account.

Ambur said it was understandable that the state needed to limit spending, but the size of the recognition given to outstanding creative professionals should be worthy of a state honour. He also noted that an athlete who wins a gold medal at the Olympic Games receives 100,000 euros, and said the culture lifetime achievement prize should be at least in the same range.