Official: UK musicians need no visas in 19 EU states
NewsMessage from HM Government today:
We, as government, have spoken to every EU Member State about the issues facing our creative and cultural industries when looking to tour in Europe. From these discussions 19 Member States have confirmed UK musicians and performers do not need visas or work permits for short-term tours. These countries are: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Sweden.
The important exception is Spain.
The source is here.
Furthermore:
We are now actively engaging with the remaining EU Member States that do not allow visa and permit free touring, and calling on them to align their arrangements with the UK’s generous rules, which allow touring performers and support staff to come to the UK for up to 3 months without a visa. Formal approaches via officials and DCMS Ministers have been made to Spain, Croatia, Greece, Portugal, Bulgaria, Romania, Malta and Cyprus. We are also working with the sector to amplify each other’s lobbying efforts.
We recognise challenges remain around touring, and we are continuing to work closely with the industry. We want to ensure that when COVID-19 restrictions are lifted, touring can resume and our world-leading creative and cultural artists can continue to travel widely, learning their craft, growing their audiences and showing the best of British creativity to the world.
Any statement being made re reciprocity for EU musicians invited to perform in GB?
It references “aligning arrangements with the UK’s generous rules, which allow touring performers and support staff to come to the UK for up to 3 months without a visa.“
They can already come in but there isn’t any work, and we are in the middle of a serious pandemic so no point. As the Proms have shown, with the BBC funding through the television license, fabulous concerts with mostly home grown British orchestras who often get over looked as it sounds so classy to bring folk in from far flung places. Back to what the Proms were oeiginally – emphasis on the music and the BBC, not on the awful hype.
some common sense at last? Spain’s status isn’t anything daft to do with Gibraltar is it?
That wouldn’t explain the absence of the other non-signatory EU members. (Of course, the others are not considered “important exceptions” by someone…)
Does anyone know whether this visa exemption only covers touring (UK musicians playing with UK resident ensembles in EU countries), or whether it extends to one-off freelance engagements for UK musicians working with EU resident ensembles?
The Schengen rules – only 90 days out of the past 180 can be spent in the Schengen zone, unless you have a D visa which you can only get if your job lasts 90 days or more. This remains a real problem for many singers, musicians, directors etc
At least it is a singer (and a distinguished one at that) who has suggested that there are musicians, and then there are singers…
But, seriously, for those who may not see the issue that Ian Bostridge raises, any UK musician (whether singer, instrumentalist, director, conductor etc), who is asked to do a couple of operas in mainland Europe across a six month period – which used to be quite normal – with (typically) a six week rehearsal period and then a run of performances over (typically) three weeks, the 90 day maximum working limit in the EU across 180 days makes that impossible – after 90 days the performer “runs out of days” (And if you read the small print, some of the 18 countries mentioned currently don’t allow nearly as much as 90 days).
So, despite this triumphant announcement from the DCMS – which actually doesn’t change so much from what was in place some months ago – UK musicians (and singers!) remain hugely disadvantaged. (And the omission of Spain and Portugal, and continuing potential issues with performing in Switzerland, which also altered its position when the UK left the EU, leaves a significant hole that shows little sign yet of meaningful progress – Spain in particular was a huge destination for UK musicians).
Lest comments on SD turn to “but that’s what you voted for”, 99% of UK Arts professionals were hugely against leaving the EU, and at every level warned the UK government for months and months that there was a major issue looming. The UK government during negotiations turned down the EU’s “all-27-EU-countries-in-one-bag” offer, leaving the UK music industry (alone worth £5.5 billion annually to the UK economy, with the wider creative sector worth more than £100 billion) at a huge financial disadvantage. Which, whatever your feelings about Brexit, cannot be good for UK creatives, let alone the UK economy.
“99% of UK arts professionals were hugely against leaving the EU”*
* citation needed
Surveys taken by the MU, ISM, IAMA, UK Music et al, let alone the vast traffic there has been – and remains – on social media (where the stats amongst performing musicians and admins are greater than 99 to 1). Commenting à-la-Wiki about a detail of such statistics is one thing, but more worrying is that the longterm livelihoods (ie post-Covid) of thousands of UK musicians and other creatives, and those of the next generation, have been and remain significantly damaged. With that, a major contributor to the UK economy takes a hit. There is a lot more negotiation to be done, and those at the very top of those UK negotiations still don’t seem to show much interest in one of the – formerly – most profitable elements of the UK economy that is the (£100+ billion annually) UK creative sector.
I suspect the opinions that predominate on social media have a great deal to do with the people you choose to follow.
Some links to those surveys would be very interesting; they do not appear to be easily find-able. A result of 99% in favour of *anything*, in any survey, on any subject, is so extraordinary as to be an indicator of probable methodological error.
It doesn’t matter how they voted. The deed is done. The Leavers won, and whingeing Remainers help nothing by saying that they didn’t vote for it. Some of them didn’t vote for the Tories, either, but you have have 3 Tory PMs in a row.
The job is to get on with solving specific problems — hold the government to account if they do not work things out. Music is not the only sector facing difficulties, and some are threatening to lives beyond their own (the possibility of problems in food or medicine supply).
I speak as one who would have voted Remain if I still lived in Britain, but I have decreasing sympathy for those who seem not willing to accept that they lost the referendum. In the long term governments will get the blame they deserve for not negotiating better, starting with Cameron. But in the short run, Britain is not a member of the EU and has to negotiate every piece of grain they eat and every step they take in Europe.
Yes, perhaps, but most of them have never worked abroad, and we are not a country of professional musicians. Percentages can look impressive but as a country we voted out. You don’t put down in this country your profession when you vote, so I don’t know where you got your trying to impress statistic. Also those who were all for leaving were shouted down by such nasty agressive groups of remainders with both words and threats, so kept quiet for fear of reprisal and voted out privately and without disclosure. As a now retired professional musician who studied and sang extensively abroad, not just in the EU, I accept the will of all our people who voted in all four countries of the UK. Many are now complaining in fact did not bother vote, like the anti vaxors of this life, so they need to keep quiet!
Bad luck! These are the consequences of leaving the EU. We don’t need UK’s artists as much as they need the EU. It is better for us EU artists that it is more difficult for UK artists to come to work here. I wish the visa requirement hadn’t change.
The EU had offered precisely this 3 month visa exemption for musicians in the negotiations from the start. However the UK turned this down as they only wanted to allow 30 days. So now the UK has essentially caved in to the EU demand for 90 day (3 month) reciprocity. could have agreed in the first place and saved a lot of time. Yes its by no means perfect especially for singers but it does make things much easier for many ensembles and freelancers thank goodness. However, what about instrument transport? will a carnet still be required for orchestras?
There is going to be a lot of “caving in to EU demands” when the UK negotiates: its called “taking back control”. Britain will need to get used to it.
the British arrogance about how superior they are (“our world-leading creative and cultural artists”) hits again.
They created the problem. They refused to accept the EU proposal. Now they save the world. Pathetic.
I resent your abuse of the British people , PGC. Kindly stop it
Oh, grow up.
Glad to hear that the Government is making efforts to resolve the issue. How interesting that it claims to be aligning EU countries’ performers being permitted 90 days visa free work in the UK. That is the precise offer made by the EU during negotiations that was rejected by the UK, in favour of a 30 day limit, because it claimed it would allow in too may people!
All a bit confusing and potentially misleading. It appears that the UK government did not really negotiate better terms for UK musicians. Third country rules and regulations were in place before, but are now presented as progress. Problems such as ATA carnets, cabotage, local VAT on merchandise remain.
I am completely against this for many reasons:
1. it is UK’s artist who needs the EU to survive. Without orchestra touring, UK orchestras would receive a massive financial hit. EU’s artists and orchestras do not need the UK as much. Its benefits are unequal for both parties.
2. Musicians should not be different from any other group.
3. The EU need to do some pedagogy. It is essential that the EU shows its members the consequences of leaving the “club”. You leave “the club”? You are out, and good luck now that everything (including trading) is going to be more difficult with your biggest client and your biggest supplier. I heard some UK politician saying that the UK should now focus on trading (and I guess touring!) with other Commonwealth countries: enjoy touring Australia, New Zealand and Canada (that’s going to be cheap!), and other “cultural powers” such as Barbados, Belize, Botswana, Cameroon, Ghana, Kiribati, Papua New Guinea, and Tonga.
So, I am not happy with this and I hope the other countries that have said declined the offer or are considering it reply with a sonorous ‘NO’.
I have a divided heart on this: on one half I agree with the inequality of benefits and the need of exemplary measures to teach other members what happens when leaving the EU, on the other I don’t want my colleagues in the UK to have it more difficult than it already is to make a living as a musician.
This is very upsetting. The EU should be as strict as possible with the UK: no special treatment, no special relationship. And of it means UK musicians have to re-train for other professions, so be it. You wanted Brexit, now you have it. I am glad some countries are not giving UK artists privileges.
It is true that UK decided that didn’t want the benefits that came with the membership because didn’t want the commitments and obligations it carried and now people have to assume the consequences, but saying something like that only shows a worrying lack of empathy. And that is what I find very upsetting.
Unless transport/carnet etc are sorted out, this would only benefit the wealthiest outfits.
Let’s see the detail Dowden, else it’s a bucket of spin.
Mike