Government and status of professionals of the revised culture by 2027

“ ANDi don't want to eternalize the discussion. Between the end of this year and the beginning of 2027 I want this process to be completed”, said Margarida Balseiro Lopes, to journalists, at the end of a public session, at the Belém Cultural Centre in Lisbon, in which some conclusions were presented from a working group on the implementation and review of ECAC.

In the public session, the working group, led by the General Inspection of Cultural Activities (IGAC), identified several problems in the application of the statute, namely excessive bureaucracy, lack of communication and the need for “institutional coordination”.

“ The conclusion that we have reached is that the application of the statute did not produce the results that were foreseen and the numbers — just over 2,000 registered professionals — point to this conclusion,” said Margarida Balseiro Lopes.

The minister — as the working group had reinforced — listed the “high bureaucratic burden, a lack of knowledge of the advantages arising from the statute, and an inefficient relationship between various public administration entities”.

During today's public session, several entities shared the same idea of failure to communicate on the functioning of the status with self-employed persons, on the contribution and social protection scheme, in particular on access to the activity suspension allowance — equivalent to unemployment benefit.

From the Plateia – Associação de Professionais das Artes Cenicas, Amarílis Felizes asked that the revision of the CEPA be carried out without haste and in a weighted manner, covering the “plurality of professionals” with all kinds of social contributions, whether or not to “green receipts”, and that there should be awareness of the existence of the status in artistic schools.

For Rafaela Ribas, of the Associação Spectacular, Agents and Portuguese Producers, the statute “is an important legislative achievement, but does not fulfill the purpose for which it was created”.

“ It has to be useful, people have to want to use it and know its benefits”, he stressed.

The jurist of IGAC Rui Cruz, who was part of the working group, considered that “it is not the legal regime [of the statute] that is at stake, but how it did not reach the artists and professionals”.

“The problem lies in the information that reaches people; it was clearly a challenge that could not be reached,” he said.

The ECAC entered into force on 1 January 2022, but the specific regulation on the social security scheme did not start to apply until July 2023.

It is the document that defines the legal framework of various professions in the Culture, Arts and Shows sector, divided into three axes: registration of workers; employment contracts; contribution regime and social support.

The status has long been claimed by workers in the sector, taking into account the precariousness, intermittence and specific work characteristics, and throughout the process of creating representative associations have been pointing out several problems to the document.

The status provided for the review within two years of its entry into force.

Last February, the Minister for Culture, Youth and Sport said she wanted to start the process of reviewing the EPAP and have ready a proposal for revision by the end of September, from the conclusions of the working group.

The working group is chaired by IGAC and has integrated elements of the Directorate-General of Arts, Directorate-General of the Book, Archives and Libraries, the Foundations Casa da Música, Centro Cultural de Belém and Serralves, the Institute of Cinema and Audiovisual, the Museums and Monuments of Portugal, the Organism of Artistic Production (Opart) and the national theaters D. Maria II and São João.

Within the working group, 60 entities were heard and 19 written contributions received. At today's sitting, only a few of the conclusions of the working party were presented, with the minister promising this week to make the report public.

Still in the context of the review of the EPAP, the Government has, throughout July, a public hearing (on the portal participates.gov.pt) for receiving contributions.