The EuroFIA group met on the 12th of November in the beautiful alpine resort of Bled, Slovenia, kindly hosted by FIA’s Slovenian members GLOSA and ZDUS. Renowned for its magnificent lake and mountain scenery, Bled was a spectacularly beautiful setting for this meeting, especially bathed in golden autumnal sunshine.
The EuroFIA group meeting was opened by Dusan Semolic of GLOSA who offered the group insight into the many challenges facing the Trade Union Movement in Slovenia today. Indeed, many of these challenges were recognisable to delegates and common themes were also addressed in the course of the meeting.
FIA members spent some time taking stock of the progress made in the framework of the Atypical workers project and updating on recent national developments of relevance to the issues addressed in the project. In this context, the group were concerned to learn of proposed legal changes in France that would allow for the engagement of unpaid amateurs in professional productions. The group unanimously adopted a resolution of support to the Syndicat Français des Artistes-Interprètes (SFA) condemning the proposed change and the detrimental impact it would have on the French Status of the Artist and on quality of employment for all performers. You can download the Resolution below. There was also a preliminary exchange on status of amateurs across various European countries. It was agreed that the group should return to this theme in more detail. More positive political developments in Slovenia towards offering a clear status and set of protections through collective bargaining to freelancers in the cultural sector were also discussed and warmly welcomed by the group.
Another notable theme in the meeting was use and development of social media by sectoral unions. The discussion was kicked off by experienced unions ACT (Turkey) and Equity (UK) who shared their unions’ work in this area, what it has delivered and the challenges it has thrown up. There was an exchange on the type of social media postings that tend to enjoy success and why. There was also an interesting focus on how this complement and make visible the unions’ work, while often remaining too superficial to be a substitute for it.
The minutes of the EuroFIA meeting will shortly be available on request from the Secretariat. utAll meeting documentation is available for download to logged in members below.
The EuroFIA was be immediately followed by the annual EuroFIA and Collecting Societies Meeting on the 13th of November. This was kindly hosted by Slovenian Collecting Society AIPA and the meeting was opened with a warm speech from Gregor Stibernik. Naturally, the FIA, FIM, AEPO-ARTIS Fair Internet for Performers campaign was a key area of discussion. It is vital to continue to build momentum and visibility for the campaign. Discussions also took in the online platforms consultation, which addresses an area of key concern for the future, as platforms continue to shape and change how content is delivered and watched, but without offering sufficient new revenue streams for performers and other rights-holders. The final panel focused on private copying and the ongoing stress to which the levies system is being exposed, as well as efforts to defend a robust private copying system that delivers meaningful compensation to performers. In present context of copyright review and reform, these meetings remain absolutely relevant and the group undertook to meet again in the first half of 2016.
Meeting Documents
All documentation for the EuroFIA and EuroFIA and CMOs meeting is available to logged-in EuroFIA members on this page.
New! 6Nov – Agenda EuroFIA-CMO Meeting 13th NovemberNew! 6Nov – Agenda EuroFIA Meeting 12th NovemberItem 4- Draft Minutes, EuroFIA, DublinItem 5a – Draft Sections 1-3 Atypical Workers Handbook (LONG)Item 5b – ETUC-ETUFS-Project-Draft-Legal-Opinion (LONG)Item-6- Dancers-Transitions-PassportItem 7a- ICS-updateItem-7a-ISDS and Collective BargainingItem 7b- IFCCD Resolution relevant to tradeItem 7b – Mons Declaration on Cultural Diversity in the Digital Era (FRENCH ONLY)Item-7b-Mons Declaration-Signatories to dateItem 10a-Draft-2nd-Skills-Council-Report-TrendsItem-12 – ARJ Toolkit (LONG)Item-12 – ARJ-Internal-NewsletterNew! Item 17 – Leaked Communication on New EU Copyright FrameworkItem17- Update on French Agreement on exploitation of music on line (in FRENCH only)Item 17 – Fair Internet for performers surveyItem-17-Text of Satellite and Cable Consultation (LONG)Item-17-Text of Online Platform Consultation (LONG)Item 18 – Introductory OIRA Article
