“Freedom of movement and access to the single market are going to be key stumbling blocks in the negotiations between Britain and the EU,” writes Michael Dervan in Wednesday’s (8/3) Irish Times (Dublin). In Ireland, “There is a significant number of British citizens working in the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra, the RTÉ Concert Orchestra and the Irish Chamber Orchestra…. In the worst of post-Brexit scenarios, British citizens based in Ireland could face the same scenarios and red tape as other non-EU citizens when travelling to work in France, Spain, Greece or Bulgaria…. A few years ago … I interviewed Macedonian pianist Simon Trpceski, a non-EU citizen…. On a country-by-country basis, he had to deliver or send his passport to embassies in order to secure documentation essential for his career…. It was touch and go whether he would get the necessary papers in time for his concert.… If you are pro-Brexit … the prospect of a kind of protectionism that will make British musicians and composers … easier to employ than non-nationals might well be appealing. The changes would cut both ways, with equal and opposite ‘benefits’ in other countries, where British artists would no longer find it so easy to work.”
Posted August 4, 2016
Pictured: Ireland’s RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra
