Thursday 05 June 2026
Wallonia is, with Tuscany, one of the two European territories selected by the Commission for their exemplary strategy of support to creative economy, as a driver for economic redeployment.
Context
In October 2010, the Walloon Government launched the Creative Wallonia framework programme to place creativity and innovation at the heart of the economy and society in Wallonia.
After two years of implementation, this ambitious strategy drew the attention of the European Commission. After qualifying it as exemplary in an official Communication to the European institutions, the European Commission recognized Wallonia as European Creative District one of the first two of their kind in the European Union.
Wallonia Creative District
The projects of Wallonia and Tuscany were selected among forty-four European territories. Through this initiative, the DG Enterprise and Industry aims to highlight the role that ICCs (Creative and Cultural Industries) can play in the transformation of a region under industrial redeployment by adding value to its economy through design, creativity and the contribution of cross-sectoral collaborations, to enable it to reach a strong positioning in the globalized value chains.
An initiative supported by several Walloon partners
The consortium formed by five Walloon operators at the forefront of innovation and creativity (the SPW/DG06, Wallonie Design , Start Invest, the "Agence Wallonne des tlcommunications" and ID campus) firmly intends to confirm Creative Wallonia as a "Large-Scale Demonstrator" by strengthening the dynamics and opening it internationally.The project is coordinated by the SPW/DGO6. The TWIST and Infople TIC clusters are also associated partners. Each operator is leader of one or more actions based on its areas of specialization.
A panel of concrete actions
The Walloon project called "Wallonia Creative District" includes a range of coordinated concrete actions, which form an overall integrated strategy around four priorities :
- "Mutual transnational Policy Learning" : benchmark, prospective, exchange and analysis of the role of ICCs in the traditional economy.
- "Better Business Support" : demonstrating and making better known the potential contribution of ICCs among other business sectors.
- "Better Financial Support" : meeting the specific challenges facing the ICCs as regards access to finance.
- "Facilitating clusters and networking activities" : strengthening and accelerating the development of the value chains of the Walloon ICCs in the European context.
Benefits for Wallonia and Europe
From January 2013 to July 2015, this project will thus position Creative Wallonia as a reference plan at the Europen level to develop cross-regional partnerships and increase collaboration opportunities for Walloon public and private operators. Wallonia Creative District will also allow to conduct an international benchmark of the Creative Wallonia plan and identify best practices for other European regions.