“The current system is damaging the music industry,” says Ole Reitov, programme manager, Freemuse. The ‘white paper’ is based on answers from various European tour and festival organisers and their experiences with visa issuing offices outside Europe, and the paper presents various recommendations to these administrators of the visa systems.

“We have received numerous horror stories from concert organisers. When they receive wrong information or are being treated as ‘dirt’ by visa offices abroad, it creates an atmosphere of great frustration and sometimes lead to cancellation of planned tours,” says Ole Reitov.

The ‘white paper’ has been forwarded to the EU Commission, the EU Parliament and the Council of the European Union, and hopefully international and national music organisations will also make use of the paper. “Lobbying at national level is extremely important in order to improve the current system,” says Ole Reitov.

Background
During the international trade fair WOMEX 2007, held in Spain in October, a seminar organised by Michel Winter of Divano Productions discussed the complex visa and work permit issues.

Freemuse then offered to host the collection of case stories and present a “white paper” to the European Parliament, the EU Commission and colleagues at national and European artists organisations. The initiative was quickly joined by international organisations with huge expertise and experiences in the field of cultural presentations and cultural exchange.