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IMPALA launches proposals for music industry recovery post-COVID

By | Published on Wednesday 29 April 2020

IMPALA

With the European Commission currently devising a trillion euro recovery plan that aims to help economies across the European Union recover following the COVID-19 pandemic, pan-European indie labels trade group IMPALA has set out its own proposals for ensuring that the music and wider cultural sectors can bounce back.

Those proposals rely on specific economic and political support from the EU itself and each member state government.

IMPALA says that its ten-step plan has been “designed to sync with the EU’s own recovery planning” with the aim of ensuring the recovery of “one of Europe’s key industries, and one of the first and hardest hit by the current crisis: the cultural and creative sectors”.

Many of the proposed measures would need to kick in next month, while others would come into effect later in the year.

The ten steps are as follows…
1. Recognising music and culture as priority sectors (May 2020)
2. Co-ordinating de-confinement and mobility strategies across Europe (now onwards)
3. Allocating sector specific EU and national crisis funds (May 2020)
4. Adopting five-year state aid framework (May 2020)
5. Increasing allocation for culture in future EU budget (May 2020)
6. Boosting loans for small and medium businesses (May 2020)
7. Granting VAT holidays and longer-term measures (when retail stores re-open)
8. Adopting national tax credit schemes (by September 2020)
9. Implementing EU copyright directive by the summer (July 2020, September latest)
10. Reviewing tools to value music and culture properly (September 2020 to January 2021)

Launching the proposed recovery strategy and accompanying wish list for EU and government support, IMPALA boss Helen Smith said: “As life across Europe gradually takes on some level of normality, a recovery timeline is needed for the cultural sectors”.

“Coming out of the crisis will be challenging, and at the same time it is an opportunity for growth”, she went on. “The key is putting the right financial and non-financial tools in place to promote investment in creativity. Our roadmap is about acting now to build a recovery plan for the next five years and beyond”.

Meanwhile IMPALA Chair Francesca Trainini, who has also been heading up IMPALA’s specific COVID-19 taskforce, added: “The contribution of music and culture to Europeans’ wellbeing is huge, on top of our economic value. This is why we need a long-term strategy and it’s time for the EU and member states to put in place ambitious sector specific plans focussed on recovery”.

You can download the plan from IMPALA’s COVID-19 specific website here.



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