EuroFIA Meeting in Warsaw

The EuroFIA meeting continued on the 9th and the morning of the 10th of May. The meeting was hosted by our Polish affiliate ZASP, which recently celebrated the 90th anniversary of its founding. Naturally, the activities of FIA at European level were the key focus of the meeting. A number of copyright-related issues were discussed, including the state of play regarding a possible future extension of the protection and the recent European Commission consultation on copyright in the knowledge economy. There was also a detailed update regarding the activities in the two European Sectoral Social Dialogue Committees of which FIA is a member – in the Live Performance and Audiovisual Sectors. The regular FIA participants shared their views on the work of the committees. The recent developments in the area of health and safety in the Live Performance committee and the decision to set up a working group on the issue of risk assessment were highlighted, as well as the slow progress being made in the joint working on gender equality and equality of access in the Audiovisual committee. An overview was also provided of the two project applications recently submitted by these committees to the Commission, which are currently awaiting evaluation. If successful, they would allow the continuation of the work of development and strengthening of social dialogue structures in these sectors in the new member states , begun in previous projects.

There was an indepth discussion at the meeting on the latest developments regarding the application of competition rule to independent workers in the media/cultural sector, preventing them from benefiting from collective agreements. There were updates from Danish and Dutch colleagues about important legal initiatives in these areas arising from efforts by the unions and it is clear that this will remain an important area of work in the coming months. Other areas of discussion included recent European work in the framework of the Open Method of Coordination on Culture; recent developments on mobility of artists and cultural workers; recent relevant EP reports and the project application submitted by FIA for a second project on gender portrayal and equal opportunities for performers.

In light of the European Year of Creativity and Innovation, there was also a very rich debate on cultural and creative industries thinking in the Arts sector and the challenges and possible opportunities that it can offer. This discussion will give rise to a FIA position paper, prepared in view of the year, but there was also a strong request from members to continue to explore this area and the proposal of having a half day seminar at the EuroFIA meeting in London was raised.

Detailed minutes of the meeting will shortly be available on request from the secretariat.