Touring and international mobility are at the heart of our sector. Productions often rely on international ensembles, guest artists, and technical staff, while concert tours and performances frequently cross multiple borders in a short period of time. In this context, EU visa and migration rules have a direct and significant impact on our capacity to deliver cultural exchanges and ensure that European audiences can access diverse cultural experiences.

Pearle* welcomes the initiative of the Commission to develop a new visa policy, as it has been an active stakeholder in the past on the practical implications of the EU’s visa policy on the cultural sector. Besides collecting information on concrete cases and data together with other cultural organisations, Pearle* has also undertaken capacity building and information sharing within the sector, allowing for the collection of policy recommendations.

The new EU visa policy strategy is an opportunity to modernise and adapt the framework in a way that not only secures borders and manages migration, but also enables the EU to create legal pathways for temporary legal migration, to meet its international commitments, and last but not least, strengthen its role as a global cultural leader.

Despite the improvements made in the Schengen Acquis, such as digital visa applications and simplification of visa applications for legitimate travellers, the reality seems to contradict this. From our perspective, the current framework still creates obstacles that hinder cultural mobility and limit the potential of cultural exchange as a driver of innovation, economic growth and cooperation. Pearle*, therefore, urges the inclusion in the strategy of the facilitation of legal pathways for artistic workers.

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