October 25th, 2021
The State Aid Temporary Framework[1], was adopted on 19th March 2020 and until today amended five times to enable Member States to use the full flexibility foreseen under State aid rules to support the economy in the context of the coronavirus outbreak.
Currently, Member States can give their views on the Commission’s proposal on the prolongation of the scheme until 30 June 2022.
According to the Commission, this would be the last prolongation of the State Aid Temporary Framework. The planned phase-out is based on the Commission's summer 2021 Economic Forecast[2], according to which GDP is forecast to grow by 4.8% in 2021 and 4.5% in 2022 in both the EU and the euro area.
Pearle* underlines that this is not reflecting the current state of play in the cultural sector, and in particular the live performance which has been one of the hardest sectors hit, with a loss of turnover of 70% for the music sector and 90% for the performing arts sector in 2019/2020 as a result of the health crisis[3].
Although the live performance is now slowly recovering, it is to be expected that the sector will need much longer to be back on track than other sectors as in the majority of Member States it can still not fully resume its activities.
In the context of the current consultation on the State Aid Temporary Framework, we therefore urge national governments to oppose the phasing out of the aids for the cultural sector, in particular for the live performance, and to ask for a sector-specific prolongation beyond mid-2022, to ensure the full recovery of music and performing arts organisations.
As the recovery of different sectors is heterogeneous, tailor-made solutions are crucial for our sector to come back as an important part of the economy, contributing to the flourishing of European societies.
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For more information, please contact:
Silke Lalvani
Head of public affairs
Pearle* - Live Peformance Europe
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[1] Latest informal consolidated version of 28 Jan 2021: Informal consolidated version of the Temporary Framework as last amended on 28 January 2021_EN (europa.eu)
[2] Summer 2021 Economic Forecast: Reopening fuels recovery (europa.eu)
[3] See the EY study: https://www.rebuilding-europe.eu/