November 27th, 2020
27 November 2020
Spread over a period of two weeks, from November 16th to November 27th, Pearle* members from across Europe met online for their 60th General Assembly. The meeting was chaired by the President of Pearle*, Morten Gjelten.
On November 16th, the conference kicked off with a session on environmental sustainability in which members discussed the ‘European Green Deal’ in relation to action at national level in the live performance sector, remaining valid under the Covid-19 crisis.
“Our main concern at this moment is to deliver innovative performances and concerts to all parts of society, live and in person. Throughout these challenging Corona times, we nevertheless have been working on establishing goals and measures to reduce our climate footprint at the long term. And sustainability will remain high on our priority list in the years to come,” said Pearle* President Morten Gjelten.
As a red thread through all the sessions, members discussed topics related to Covid-19, such as ventilation systems for live venues and events to mitigate the risk of infection, mobility impediments for touring companies and artists, new and extended state aid schemes for the cultural sector in the crisis, support measures under the recovery and resilience facility and new skills to be acquired for new ways of working. The live performance sector is one of sectors hardest hit by lockdown measures. It is expected that it will only slowly recover from the health crisis and struggle with the consequences for at least the next two years.
In this context, members call on the EU and Member States to earmark and allocate at least 2% of the overall budget of the European recovery package to the cultural sector, as called for by the European Parliament and requested in the Pearle* call "Give Live Performance A Future".
One month before the Brexit transition period comes to an end, the conference took stock of expected obstacles for highly mobile organisations and workers in the live performance. Questions remain among others on social security coordination, ATA-carnets and CITES certificates, intellectual property rights clearance and data transfers. Members underlined that cultural links to the UK will remain strong and that cultural diversity and exchange do not stop at the newly created borders.
At the General Assembly meeting on November 27th, the Spanish Association of Music Festivals (FMA) was accepted as a full member of Pearle*. We very much welcome the FMA and are looking forward to further collaborating on topics related to the functioning and daily business of the live performance sector.
Pearle*-Live Performance Europe now has 57 direct members, representing over 10,000 organisations in the sector.
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Note to editors:
Pearle*- Live Performance Europe is a European federation representing through its members more than 10,000 theatres, theatre production companies, orchestras and music ensembles, opera houses, ballet and dance companies, festivals, concert halls, venues and other organisations within the performing arts and music sector across Europe. The aim of this non-profit making organisation is the establishing of a stable environment by supporting sustainability and promotion of the Performing Arts across Europe.