Pearle* welcomes Commission guidelines for a safe re-opening of the cultural sector

Today, at a press conference, Commission Vice-President in charge of promoting the European Way of Life, Margaritis Schinas together with the Commissioner for Culture, Mariya Gabriel presented the Commission guidelines for the safe re-opening of the cultural sector.

Pearle welcomes the outlined measures recommended by the Commission, such as the development of preparedness plans as well as health protocols allowing the restart of cultural live events.

The Commission guidelines come in a timely moment to foster cooperation between authorities in the Member States and the cultural sector to implement the proposed measures and ensure the smooth reopening of culture.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, branch and employers’ organisations in the live performance in a wide range of Member States have been involved in the drafting of health protocols and action plans with the aim to protect the workforce and audiences.

As the epidemiological situation is improving and vaccination campaigns are speeding up, Pearle* deems appropriate a full re-opening of cultural events and venues, while taking into account the proposed health and safety measures during the time of pandemic, underlining that those should be proportionate and temporary.

In this context, the results of a number of test live events must be acknowledged, showing “that few COVID-19 cases have been associated with transmission at or around cultural events”.  

Pearle* believes that the use of the EU digital COVID certificate will allow citizen to safely access and participate in cultural activities. We are also hopeful that it will ensure the resumption of touring activities in the live performance sector.   

Pearle* also welcomes the Commission’s presentation of funding lines and underlines that appropriate support packages are needed to revive the sector and recover from more than 1,5 year of lost income. The signal of the Commission to put in place dedicated European funds need to be complemented with Member state support, also at regional and local level.

We remain available to contribute to the proposed focused discussions on the use of the present recommendations.