More than 300 cultural groups across Europe have called on UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham and EU leaders to fix the rules that make touring between the UK and the EU so hard. The groups signed an open letter ahead of next week’s UK-EU Summit, asking leaders to finally break the deadlock over touring.
The letter was organised by the Cultural Exchange Coalition, a group set up last December to bring together music and creative groups across Europe. Its signatories include UK Music, LIVE, the Musicians’ Union, and many other organisations from the UK and EU countries.
What the letter asks for
The groups want leaders at the summit to set up a structured EU-UK dialogue with a clear plan to unlock the full potential of cultural exchange between the two sides. That plan should include practical fixes for touring professionals and their equipment, as well as the UK taking part in European programmes such as Creative Europe, which support international partnerships and exchange.
“Culture is Europe’s most powerful connector,” the letter says, but “current arrangements for touring and other forms of creative collaboration are weakening that connection and undermining a sector that delivers economic value, global influence and shared cultural understanding”.
The letter adds that the 2026 Summit “presents a critical opportunity to tackle the unintended consequences” of Brexit and “unlock opportunities for performers, artists, crews, businesses and audiences across Europe”.
How touring became so hard
Since the UK left the EU, British artists who want to perform in Europe face a wall of extra paperwork. Visa and travel permit rules now differ from one EU country to the next. Artists also have to deal with extra customs checks, transport and haulage limits, and tax problems around selling merchandise.
The added cost and admin can make a European tour unworkable for many acts, especially smaller and newer artists who cannot afford the extra expense. The same problems hit EU artists who want to tour in the UK.
The sector has raised this before. Ahead of the first UK-EU Summit in May 2025, music and cultural groups made similar calls. That summit produced a nine-page Common Understanding document, which said the European Commission and the UK “recognise the value of travel and cultural and artistic exchanges, including the activities of touring artists”.
But the new letter says that since then “there has been no dedicated formal dialogue nor tangible progress”. The strong words were welcomed, but nothing practical followed.
What the numbers show
A report commissioned by the UK government and published earlier this year put hard numbers on the damage. British artists gave 21% fewer performances in Europe in 2024 than in 2019, the last full year before the UK left the EU.
The report estimated that the UK music industry and other performing arts sectors together lost £208 million in gross value added and around 2,490 jobs between 2022 and 2024. Looking at 20 EU member states alongside the UK, it put the combined loss from post-Brexit touring bureaucracy at about £1.04 billion.
Labour’s 2024 general election pledges specifically mentioned “touring artists” within a promise to “improve the UK’s trade and investment relationship with the EU” by “tearing down unnecessary barriers to trade”. UK ministers could offer more support to artists on their own, but fixing the underlying issues would need the UK and EU to work together.
What happens next
Touring is only one of a long list of Brexit-related challenges that leaders could discuss at the summit, so it is not yet clear how much attention it will get. The cultural groups hope the letter will push it up the agenda.
The Cultural Exchange Coalition includes the European Music Exporters Exchange, the European Music Managers Alliance and Pearle*, which represents the live sector across Europe, as well as trade bodies from the UK and other European countries. With more than 300 organisations now speaking with one voice, the pressure on both sides to act is growing.
For now, artists, crews and fans will be watching the summit closely to see whether leaders move from warm words to real change.
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Sources: Dork
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