FIM and Pearle acted on the issue of instrument transportation last year. Indeed, the Passenger Rights directive is being revised and will be voted in the coming months by the European Parliament.
The first step consisted in having a say in the proposed text. FIM organized a petition online on instrument transportation, which was signed by more than 43 000 people. (see the petition here)
In this context, some recommendations made by FIM and Pearle were taken into account in the proposed text written by the Commission. This text will be presented to the European Parliament.
Pearle and FIM also directly targeted Members of the European Parliament in order to raise their awareness. The issue was actively supported by MP Georges Bach who asked questions to the European Commission on this matter. See his written question here.
An answer was given by Mr Kallas on behalf of the Commission, recalling that these concerns had been taken into account in the public consultation organized at the occasion of the possible revision of the directive. He also suggested that non-legislative measures should be prefered for now. See his answer here. Following this discussion, a memo was written on March 13th 2013 by the European Commission. It clearly included the case of “musical instruments”, which may be considered as significant progress. Contacts on this memo: Helen Kearns (+32 2 298 76 38) Dale Kidd (+32 2 295 74 61).
We are now expecting the vote of the European Parliament. If this text is voted, we strongly encourage our members to make sure that the directive will be correctly translated into national law. We will keep you informed on this vote.
Sources :
http://www.fim-musicians.org
http://www.pearle.ws/en/policyareas
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/fr/97293/GEORGES_BACH_activities.html
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