FIM

Voices of Culture. The DG EAC and the Goethe Institute set up a struc­tured dia­logue between the cul­tur­al sec­tor and the European Commission on the issue of the sta­tus and work­ing con­di­tions for artists and oth­er cul­tur­al professionals.

Set in motion in the spring of 2021, this process brought togeth­er a sig­nif­i­cant num­ber of cul­tur­al organ­i­sa­tions. It has just pub­lished the brain­storm­ing report pre­sent­ed to the European Commission on 29 June 2021.

The main objec­tive behind this struc­tured dia­logue is to facil­i­tate exchanges between the cul­tur­al sec­tor and EU pol­i­cy­mak­ers. It also encour­ages a “col­lab­o­ra­tive” approach between the sec­tor and the Commission.

Structured around five sec­tions, the brain­storm­ing report address­es com­plex issues in a rel­a­tive­ly suc­cinct way. Given the diver­gent points of view between cul­tur­al play­ers con­cerned, the syn­the­sis of the debates is, on the whole, fair­ly satisfactory.

In its exchanges with the sec­tor, the Commission insist­ed on the impor­tance of infor­ma­tion and rec­om­men­da­tions expressed to guide its work with the Member States. It also rec­og­nized that the cri­sis had exac­er­bat­ed the pre­car­i­ous sit­u­a­tion of many artists and cul­tur­al play­ers. Finally, it sug­gest­ed that exchanges con­tin­ue on issues such as the sta­tus of employ­ment, work­ing con­di­tions or access to social security.