Culture pass: too expensive and poorly planned, with 244 million public money | “Culture Pass”

The Culture Pass is a totem of Emmanuel Macron's cultural policy. After its launch in 2017 and experimental phases in several departments, it was generalized in 2021 to all young people aged 18 throughout France, then extended, in 2022, to young people aged 15 to 17. . It has affected 4.2 million beneficiaries since its creation.

The Court of Auditors recently published the first assessment of the Culture Pass concluding that it is an expensive system, with limited effects and in need of reform. With a cost of 244 million euros in 2024, its 166 employees moved a stone's throw from the Champs Élysées, with a payroll of 11.3 million euros at the end of 2023, paid by the taxpayer.

While the French are being asked to tighten their belts with a law on the 2025 Budget, from which new taxes are expected in the country that is already the most taxed in the world, these expenses are considered too heavy and of limited effectiveness, for example. the first financial jurisdiction of the administrative order.

The Court of Auditors publishes its first report

Working classes still far from culture, rising costs and limited diversity of practices… Despite its wide adoption by 15-18 year olds, the Culture Pass, a measure desired by President Emmanuel Macron, must be reformed, estimated the Court of Auditors in a report.

If 84% of young people aged 18 use the Culture Pass – an envelope of 300 euros for each dedicated to cultural activities – the system “has not completely succeeded in reaching young people furthest from the cultural offer”, indicated the first president of the Court of Auditors, Pierre Moscovici, pointing out that the barriers to access to culture “are not only financial”.

Between 42% and 55% of the amounts spent each quarter concern book purchases. Manga represented almost 40% of these purchases in the 3rd quarter of 2021, and at the start of 2024 they represented more than 20% of book purchases. Literature, for its part, increased from 10 to 30%.

If concert or cinema tickets are also popular, “only 7% of young people have booked on average at least once a live show other than musical (theatre, dance, circus, etc.)”, notes the Court.

Due to a lack of “controls”, 16 million euros also benefited “escape games”, said Pierre Moscovici. Following a request from the Ministry of Culture, these activities no longer benefit from it, he specified.

The cost and management of the Culture Pass, at the expense of the taxpayer

The budgetary expenditure for the Culture Pass stood at 93 million euros in 2021, rising to 244 million euros in 2024 – more than 300 million, if we include the amounts paid to educational establishments.

It is financed by the State, although it was initially planned to be financed 20% by the State and 80% by other private resources. The majority of Culture Pass products are made up of subsidies received, more than 90% from the Ministry of Culture, the other subsidies coming mainly from the Ministry of National Education and Youth.

Operating expenses increased from 0.5 million euros in 2019 to more than 20 million euros in 2023 and are made up, essentially, of the weight of the payroll amounting to 166 employees.

The payroll reaches 11.3 million euros at the end of 2023, or 4.3% of total expenses and is largely explained by the company's structural costs which have, since 2019, increased constantly, according to the Court of Auditors.

The company SAS Pass culture which manages the system has just set up on rue de la Boétie, a stone's throw from the Champs-Élysées, for a rent of 1.2 million euros in 2023, an increase of 151% over one year.

An “essential budgetary reframing”

A “budgetary reframing” is “essential” for the Court of Auditors, while individual budgetary expenditure linked to the pass increased from 93 million euros in 2021 to 244 million euros in 2024, or 2.6 times more. To this amount are added the 80 million euros dedicated directly to educational establishments.

The Pass was also supposed to be supported by revenues from the private sector. However, it is almost entirely financed by the State – although managed by a private company. This paradox requires a “rethinking of governance” for the Court, to allow “better management of the system” and “better information for Parliament and citizens”.

The Court nevertheless welcomed the desire announced by the resigning Minister of Culture, Rachida Dati, to reform the Pass. The company SAS Pass culture, which manages the system, should also be transformed into a state operator, according to the institution.

Rachida Dati wants profound reform

The Minister of Culture, Rachida Dati, wishes to profoundly reform the Culture Pass, the high cost and effects of which are highly contested by players in the sector.

Five years after its introduction, the minister is proposing to put an end to what made the system original: a universal subsidy of 300 euros for all 18-year-olds, to spend as they wish.

The minister first wishes to adjust the amount offered to young people. “Without renouncing the universality of the system, we must further assume that the Culture Pass is intended to correct inequalities in destiny”, she underlines, by giving “more to young people of modest means, without neglecting the middle classes” can we read in a newspaper column The World in October.

She also wants to put an end to self-service which allows young people to spend their grant as they wish. A part will have to be devoted to bookings for live shows, largely shunned by the beneficiaries, who only devote 1% of their expenses to it.

The situation has become untenable

“Mass is said for the Culture Pass,” judges academic and cultural economist Jean-Michel Tobelem for AFP, who sees it as “a disavowal” of President Macron.

“Many people did not want to accept the idea that the Culture Pass was not achieving its objectives, until the situation became untenable” budgetarily, he regrets. He calls for this reform to be accompanied by support for actors such as small bookstores, MJCs and popular education.

Sociologist at Cerlis, specialist in the cultural practices of adolescents, Tomas Legon also sees the end of the original spirit of the Culture Pass.

“The Pass represented a modest form of innovation in cultural policy” by allowing teenagers to choose their practices. “There, we return to the classic objective since the 1950s of cultural democratization, distinguishing good practices from bad and considering that there are things less cultural than others,” he analyzes.