A new report by European Movement UK highlights the difficulties faced by the UK's creative sector, ten years after the decision to leave the EU.

The report is available to read here.

Music venue owners like Mig Schallache, owner of The Louisiana, Bristol's iconic music venue, say performances by EU-based acts have reduced dramatically over the last 5 years - while UK bands now find touring and taking merchandise into the EU prohibitively difficult.

"Because of Brexit we're getting less artists from Europe. There aren't enough artists in the UK to fill diaries, so you need the influx to fill your books.

"Pre-brexit it was so much easier for bands to go to Europe and tour. Now it's just not feasible. It's just really sad not having that influence from Europe, European music coming across and seeing it live."

Watch our interview with Mig here.

UK musicians and artists have said consistently that working in the EU has become much harder since the UK left the bloc. New requirements for lists of equipment, visa issues and movement restrictions across EU borders for UK nationals have seen many lose work or stop touring the EU entirely.

The report recommends the government should:

• Agree a short-term mobility and work framework covering touring performers, creatives and associated staff, while tackling the issues hampering their EU counterparts in the UK.
• Relax cabotage rules affecting both UK and EU touring operations, enabling productions to move equipment across borders without unnecessary restrictions.
  
• Join Creative Europe, the EU's flagship cultural programme, with a commitment to participate in its successor, AgoraEU.

The UK can remove domestic barriers now, reducing unnecessary bureaucracy for UK creatives and for EU cultural professionals working in the UK.

Facts and Figures

• £145.8bn was contributed by the creative industries to the UK economy in 2024, around 5.5 percent of the economy.
• 2.4m+ jobs are supported across the creative industries, around 7 percent of the workforce.
• £8bn was contributed to the economy by UK music alone, including exports worth nearly £5bn.

A roundtable to discuss the report and the solutions available for solving the post-Brexit problems facing the cultural and creative sectors will take place on Tuesday in Portcullis House, Westminster, hosted by Dr Al Pinkerton MP.