Musicians: EU Countries

(asked on 24th June 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to the Answer of 28 April 2021 to Question 186125 on Musicians: EU Countries and with reference to his evidence to the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee on 13 May 2021, which EU member states have Ministers from his Department had meetings with on touring rights for UK and EU musicians.


Answered by
Caroline Dinenage Portrait
Caroline Dinenage
This question was answered on 29th June 2021

I have met with Heads of Mission to enlist their support, and Embassies have now had discussions with every Member State.

We have established some touring activities are possible without needing visas or work permits in at least 17 out of 27 Member States. This includes France, Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark and many more. And we are now working closely with individual Member States to encourage them to adopt a more flexible approach, in line with the UK’s own rules which allow creative professionals to tour easily here. As part of this, the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, and I, are speaking to our ministerial counterparts in a number of key Member States about the importance of touring.

We have already raised the importance of touring during bilateral meetings with ministerial counterparts in Portugal, Austria and the Netherlands as well as the Belgian and Slovenian ambassadors to the UK. We are also arranging conversations with counterparts in other key member states such as Spain, Italy, France and Germany.

As conversations are ongoing, it would not be appropriate to share details of these discussions at this time.

Reticulating Splines