Artists' mobility, social security and taxation in the EU Seminar

Brussels, 19th-20th June – FIA participated in the two-day seminar on Artists' mobility, social security and taxation in the EU, convened by the European commission, DG Education and Culture. Mobility Information Network On-The-Move (OTM), of which FIA is a member, was commissioned, via the EENC network, to prepare ananalytical report on the issue, which served as the background document of the event and was completed with the experts inputs from Pearle* the European Live Performance Employers’ League.

The seminar convened around 60 participants, including representatives of 18 EU Member States, of the European culture sector (companies, employers, federations and trade unions) and of different Commission DGs. The discussion started with the overview of the main obstacles - regulatory, administrative and practical - faced by mobile artists and cultural professionals when dealing with social security and taxation issues. In presenting its findings,On the Movepointed out that artists working across borders often encounter problems because they combine different working statuses (employed / self-employed / freelance) at the same time, and because they feature frequently mobile and highly unpredictable career patterns.

The meeting allowed for an exchange of good practices from different Member States who have taken into account the specific needs of frequently mobile workers and have amended their legislations or established particular procedures accordingly.A key outcome of the meeting was thatinformation provisionremains a crucial issue:there is a need for online and off-line information that is reliable, up-to-date, accurate, and available for free to anyone, in different languages.Indeed, access to information remains the main problem for mobile artists, culture professionals and inviting / hosting venues. However, some Member States have set up relevant information portals: good practices included OTM members Kunstenloket (Belgium), ITI Germany and IGBK (Touring Artist website), Swedish Teaterunionen.

The seminar took place in the framework of the European Agenda for Culture - Council work plan for culture 2011-2014.The analytical report will shortly be published by the EENC network on its website.FIA will make it available once it is published.

You can download the seminar programme below. All of the presentations made at the seminar are available on request from the secretariat.

Seminar Programme