Published on
12/07/2026 - 9:08 GMT+2
The European Commission has given its final backing to the withdrawal of a €2 million grant that had been allocated to the Venice Biennale for the 2025-2028 three-year period.
European Commissioner for Democracy Henna Virkkunen announced the decision on the funds earmarked for the Biennale, saying in a post on X that culture in Europe, as it is funded by taxpayers' money, "should promote and safeguard democratic values and that such values are not respected in Russia today".
This stance comes at the end of an assessment of the answers provided by the Biennale regarding the controversial reopening of the Russian pavilion. The move has taken the form of a recommendation to the European Education and Culture Executive Agency, a non-binding act but addressed to the body that has the final say and had already come out in favour of cutting the funds.
