This document is a civil society proposal for the future EU Artists’ Charter, which the European Commission is developing and plans to present in the second quarter of 2027. The text that follows is not the Commission’s Charter and does not create legal obligations. Rather, it is a Sector Blueprint: an attempt to show what an ambitious Charter could look like from the cultural sector’s perspective.
The Blueprint outlines the sector’s benchmark for the future Charter. By taking the form of a possible Charter rather than another list of recommendations, the Blueprint identifies who should act and what their commitments could involve. It covers artists and workers in the cultural and creative sectors across different and mixed statuses, including employees, the self-employed, freelancers, intermittent or project-based workers, etc. It recognises that these groups operate under different legal and institutional frameworks and does not seek to replace labour law, collective agreements, social dialogue or existing enforcement bodies.
Its purpose is to offer a concrete sector contribution to the Charter’s development and to provide a basis for further discussion with the European Commission, Member States, social partners and the cultural sector.
The Blueprint was developed by Culture Action Europe’s Action Group on Working Conditions, co-facilitated by Culture Action Europe and Platform ACCT. The process brought together 40 representatives of cultural organisations and European networks from Culture Action Europe’s membership. On the Move was associated in the drafting process of this Charter and could also count on the suggestions by the Mobility Information Points (MIPs), particularly touring artists (DE) and MobiCulture (FR).
