Pearle* welcomes the Commission’s intention to identify practical ways to make EU rules and procedures simpler for people in their daily lives. The live performance sector employs over 1,1 million workers and reaches daily hundreds of thousands of citizens participating in cultural events.

For many citizens, the benefits of the Single Market are experienced not only when they travel, study, buy services or interact with public authorities across borders, but also when they work across borders. This is particularly relevant for citizens active in the cultural and live performance sector, where cross-border mobility is a normal part of professional life. Artists, musicians, performers, technicians, production staff and other cultural professionals regularly travel to rehearse, perform, tour, collaborate or provide services in another Member State.

However, these professionals and the organisations engaging them still face significant administrative burdens when working across borders, notably in relation to social security coordination, A1 certificates, posted worker notifications and cross-border (artist) taxation, among others. These procedures are often fragmented, repetitive, difficult to understand and disproportionate to the short-term nature of many cultural engagements.

Pearle* therefore encourages the Commission to ensure that the Citizens’ Omnibus Initiative takes into account citizens working in highly mobile sectors such as the live performance. Reducing administrative burdens for cultural workers and the organisations that enable their mobility would make the Single Market more tangible in practice, while supporting cultural exchange, access to live performance and Europe’s cultural diversity.

Download the full paper to read our comments on the Call for Evidence.