TALENT
Plans for ‘new cultural area’ for Europe
IMPALA executive chair Helen Smith
IAO chairman Nacho Garcia Vega
I
N AN exciting and much needed development for touring artists, European organisation for independent music companies IMPALA and the International Artists Association (IAO), are working on a joint proposal to create a new cultural area with a single touring permit, instead of treating Europe and its neighbours as separate blocs and countries. Known as the GECAT pass (Geographical European Cultural Area Touring), the proposal was introduced in Q3 this year and since then the plan has attracted many interested parties from the sector and beyond. “Although schemes do exist currently to facilitate touring, IMPALA and IAO take the view that there is a need for a parallel system,” IMPALA executive chair Helen Smith says. “Our case studies underline the practical hindrances many small and medium-sized tours MIDEM DIGITAL EDITION NEWS
face — for example visas, VAT, customs and cabotage, as soon as they move from one economic grouping or country to another.” “Current legislation should be updated to make it easier and less expensive for European artists to tour Europe. We need a new broader cultural area, instead of treating Europe as a number of distinct blocs,” IAO chairman Nacho Garcia Vega, adds. “Technical solutions on mobility, declarations of instruments and equipment, unlimited stops in touring activity or VAT on merchandise paid on return, are the sorts of improvements for small and medium-size tours that lie behind the GECAT Pass proposal. There is also a need to harmonise the national withholding tax regulations, the so-called artist tax. Currently those regulations are giving American artists financial advantage over Europeans when touring in different European countries. ” n 31
NOVEMBER 2021
