UK Elections: Labour, EPP boost musician mobility campaign

While EU-UK relations are largely off the table in the UK’s General Election campaign, an initiative to secure EU mobility rights for British musicians is gaining traction after Labour’s shadow economy minister spoke in favour of change this week.

When the UK left the European Union in 2021, the rights of citizens on both sides of the English Channel to cross the sea for work were curtailed. Musicians and other performers, who travel in short bursts for concert tours, have been hit particularly hard with financially damaging amounts of red tape.

New barriers to entry

Specifically, performers now need to grapple with 27 sets of rules, if they wish to bring their act anywhere in the European Union. Ireland is a straightforward case as British and Irish citizens can work in each other’s country as part of the Common Travel Area.

On the mainland, rules vary from freedom to perform for 90 days in some countries, to being allowed a single performance in the case of Greece.

There are also diverging additional requirements. For some countries forms must be filled, in others, money must be paid, and in Cyprus, a worker must even provide a chest X-ray and a blood test. For a full breakdown by country, see the map below.

What is the damage?

According to the Face the Music campaign page of the European Movement UK, a non-party pro-EU campaign organisation, “almost half of musicians say they had less work in Europe than they did before Brexit. 40% of musicians in the UK have lost work because of Brexit red tape. UK artists have lost an average of £11,545 (Euro equivalence?) of income since the UK left the EU.”

In November 2023, the UK’s lower house of parliament produced a report pointing out a  fall of 31% in UK music export revenue in 2021 compared to 2019, caused by “Brexit-related barriers, alongside a lack of international touring, and fewer music tourists visiting the UK, [which] have restricted export recovery after the Covid 19 pandemic.”

Upon publication, the House of Commons also noted “the European Commission’s and UK Government’s position is that there’s no prospect of changing the TCA [Trade & Cooperation Agreement] in the near future.”

Scope for a new EU-UK agreement on cultural workers

In a speech to business leaders at Rolls Royce, the UK’s shadow Economy Minister Rachel Reeves pledged, “we will forge a closer relationship with our nearest neighbours in the European Union, to ease the burden of bureaucracy and red tape on British businesses including … an agreement on touring visas.”

On the side of the European Parliament, German Member of the European Parliament (MEP) and Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee David McAllister (EPP) said in a statement to Euractiv, that the Parliament “regret[s] the absence of any provisions linked to culture and the cultural and creative sectors,” in the TCA.

On the question of willingness to change the TCA, McAllister reacted positively: “it would be in the interest of the EU and the UK to streamline visa and work arrangements. The European Parliament has urged both parties to work towards an agreement that is mutually beneficial and is part of a future framework for artists and cultural professionals. The EPP would support any agreement that respects those aspects and guarantees the integrity of our internal freedoms.”

With elections imminent in both the UK and the EU, it is not out of the question there could be a Labour-EPP collaboration to restore mobility rights for musicians.

[Edited by Rajnish Singh]

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