The EuroFIA group met for the second time this year in Warsaw, Poland, hosted by Polish affiliates ZASP and ZZAP, who extended a warm welcome to the group. Anna-Katrine Olsen, General Secretary of DSF, was elected to chair the meeting as EuroFIA coordinator. After attending to some statutory business, discussions got off to a lively start with a panel on Freedom of Artistic Expression. We welcomed three Polish Artists for this panel: Roman Pawlowski, theatre critic and culture journalist, Michał Walczak, a playwright, theatre director and sometime performer; and Joanna Szczepkowska, a performer whose long and successful career has spanned theatre, film and television. The panel was chaired by Sercan Gidisoglu, of AUT, Turkey. The panel reflected on the challenges that have affected the artistic sector in recent times – taking in such topics as the impact of political influence and pressure; the role of art in protest and the challenges of finding new forums and building new audiences; as well as the direct impact of challenges in the sector on the job security and working conditions of artists.
As always, the group dedicated some of its time to an exchange on some of the most pressing policy questions at EU level. Thus there was a detailed review of the state of play regarding the current European copyright reform and the priorities for FIA, as well as the next steps. The group also spent some time on the European Pillar of Social Rights and the potential for better labour market conditions for atypical workers including self-employed workers in the sector. FIA will continue to work with UNI-MEI and FIM to make the case for the sector within this process. The group also took stock of the ongoing work across a range of themes in the two sectoral social dialogue committees on Live Performance and Audiovisual.
There were also several panels on items of joint interest. In the area of dubbing, there have been a number of positive developments of late, including the achievement of royalty payments to dubbing performers in Hungary and an encouraging breakthrough on terms and conditions offered to dubbing actors in Turkey. There was a keen interest in the group in further developing FIA’s work around dubbing, including the possible creation of a dubbing and voice-over section in FIA. Another panel was built around the exchange of experiences on union action to combat bullying and harassment. Many EuroFIA unions are building up their activities in this area and it was useful to review the information gathering that has taken place in some countries, as well as the range of approaches in relation to developing support, mediation and guidance services, as well as a range of other resources for members.
The EuroFIA group also adopted two resolutions in the course of its meeting. The first arose directly from the workshop carried out by EuroFIA in Budapest in the Spring and urges the government to continue and see through to a conclusion the good work done towards the creation of a professional transition scheme for dancers in Hungary. The second relates to the Antalya film festival: the group was dismayed to learn that the national part of the film festival has been entirely terminated, leaving only the international competition. The group therefore adopted a resolution calling on the Turkish authorities to reinstate the national competition, as an invaluable forum and showcase to recognise and nurture national talent. The two resolutions are available for download below.
The EuroFIA group will meet again in the Spring of 2018, in conjunction with the annual EuroFIA and CMOs meeting. Date and location are still to be confirmed.
Resolution regarding the creation of a Transition Scheme for professional dancers in Hungary
Resolution regarding the Antalya Film festival
You will also find all additional documentation from the two and a half days of meetings below – These are visible to logged-in EuroFIA visitors only!.
MEETING DOCUMENTS
Dance Passport Meeting
Questionnaire for compilation of future advice to dancers section.
EuroFIA Meeting (27th September All Day; 28th September Half Day):
Full Meeting Package: this contains all of the meeting documents (excepting the IP Matters documentation), presented in order, that you can download in a single click.
IP Matters: due to the extensive documentation for this item, we have kept it out of the general package so that participants can select which documents they wish to download and print.
- European Parliament: CULT Opinion; ITRE Opinion and IMCO Opinion
- Estonian Presidency: Leaked Working Document from Presidency to Council
- Fair Internet for Performers: Position addressed to JURI ; Initial position on Commission Proposal;
NATIONAL REPORTS
