The EuroFIA group met in Brussels, Belgium on the 5-7 of June 2018. We are grateful to the European Economic and Social Council for facilitating our meetings through the loan of their premises and the provision of interpretation. The 5th of June was dedicated to the Annual Meeting of the EuroFIA unions with European Collective Management Organisations active in the Audiovisual sector. The meeting was hosted by the Belgian CMO Playright and their Managing Director Christophe Van Vaerenbergh opened by extending a warm welcome to the group and reflecting on the joint challenges faced by unions and CMOs representing performers in a digital age.
As always, this meeting was an opportunity to exchange views on the most pressing matters in relation to Intellectual Property Rights and a stimulating exchange on the revision of the cable retransmission regulation and the need to establish direct injection within the established retransmission paradigm led to a lively opening panel. Naturally the ongoing European Copyright Reform was also high on the agenda and three of the partners of the Fair Internet for Performers Campaign (FIA, FIM and AEPO ARTIS) reflected jointly on what scope remains to achieve progress in relation to the goals of the campaign. The agenda for the day also offered an opportunity for members to take a closer look at the work of SCAPR, presented by Managing Director Rémy Desrosiers; and to get to know “Create Denmark” which works to create value for a broad range of creative workers for online use of their work, presented by Kaspar Banlusak Halkier. The AVMS; the regulation of VOD; the fight against piracy and private copying were also topics on the agenda of a dense and productive day.
The 6-7 of June were dedicated to the EuroFIA Group meeting. The group welcomed a number of external guests who kindly joined the meeting to share information and expertise with the EuroFIA unions. We welcomed Dick Molenaar, All Arts Tax Advisors and Anita Debaere, Director of Pearle*, Live Performance Europe to discuss the work underway by the European Social Partners in the Live Performance Sector on Double Taxation. Marco Giorello, Head of the Copyright Unit, DG Connect also addressed the EuroFIA group regarding the advancement towards ratification of the Beijing Treaty and the challenges that have emerged in that regard. He emphasised the Commission’s commitment to seeing ratification advance as quickly as possible. Oliver Roethig, Regional Secretary, UNI Europa made a keynote address to the EuroFIA group on “the Future of work: Challenges in organising and representing non-standard workers” which led on to a wider debate on FIA’s ongoing work in relation to self-employed, freelance and other atypical workers in the sector.
Senior Legal Advisor Wiebke Warneck, ETUC kindly offered a detailed update to the group in relation to the latest developments in relation to the social pillar and in particular the Draft Directive on Transparency and Predictability of Working Conditions. She also shared the position of the ETUC in relation to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and union obligations in relation to the data that they may handle. The meeting also included stimulating panels on union roles in relation to the casting process and on gender equality and #metoo. The latter included a special focus on the experience of dancers from Ilse Ghekiere, Belgian dancer and freelance researcher.
The EuroFIA group also adopted several Resolutions in the course of its meeting. These covered a range of pressing national and international issues directly pertaining to the working lives of performers. They have been sent to their intended addressees and are freely available to download below:
EuroFIA Resolution regarding Eco-Efficient Lighting regulations
EuroFIA Resolution regarding Chaining of Fixed-term contracts for dancers in Spain
The other meeting documents from this meeting remain available on this page and are visible to logged-in members of the EuroFIA group.
Meeting Documents.
You can find the meeting documents here below, Internal documents are visible to logged in members only.
Annual EuroFIA and CMOs Meeting:
EuroFIA Meeting Brussels
Item 3: Draft Meeting Agenda
Item 4: Draft Minutes Warsaw meeting
Item 5: Link to Pearle* Ultimate Cookbook Series (printed copies to be distributed)
Item 5: European Parliament Pilot Project
Item 7: Link to Coreper Position on the Future Copyright Framework for the Digital Single Market (May 25th)
Item 9b: Draft report on Self-Employment and Union Representation by Lionel Fulton
Item 10a1: Proposed Commission Recommendation on Access to Social Protection
Item 10a1: ETUC position on Recommendation on Access to Social Protection
Item 10a: Proposed Directive on Transparent and Predictable Working Conditions
Item 10a: Proposed ETUC amendments on Directive on Transparent and Predictable Working Conditions
Item 10b: Link to 29th May: Posting of Workers Outcome of EP vote
Item 10b: ETUC evaluation of the Revision of the Posting of Workers Directive.
Item 10d: New European Agenda for Culture
Item 12: Dance Passport FAQ
Item 14: Framework of Action on Gender Equality Project – Overview ; Survey Questions
Item 14b: Link to the Engagement Arts Campaign.
National Reports from EuroFIA members:
GDBA National report
ZDUS National report
AUT National Report Annexe 1; Annexe 2; Annexe 3
ZZAP National Report
Equity UK National Report
From Equity UK: Proposed Motion to the EuroFIA group on Free Movement on Workers
From Equity UK: Proposed Motion to the EuroFIA group on Eco Efficient Lighting Regulation
ZASP National Report
DSF National Report
Irish Equity National Report
NSF National Report
Kunstenbond National Report
