The government will discuss the proposed introduction of artist status

Prague - The introduction of artist status into the Czech legal system and the establishment of conditions and processes for obtaining it is anticipated in a bill that the government will discuss on Wednesday. The proposal was prepared by the Ministry of Culture. It also accounts for the fact that supporting artists will cost the state 126 million crowns annually and will concern 1,400 artists. This is evident from the materials related to the proposal on the government website. The necessity of legislatively introducing artist status has been discussed since the COVID-19 pandemic, when the possibility of artistic production was significantly restricted. The bill could come into effect on January 1 of next year.

According to the proposal, a person who has been engaged in artistic activity for at least two of the last three years should be registered based on a submitted application. To receive a subsidy, they must not be a student and, at the time of application, must not be in an employment relationship that exceeds half of the weekly working hours. Additionally, their income from artistic activity in the last two years must constitute at least half of their total income and not exceed the average wage in the national economy.

The Ministry will announce at least once a year a selection procedure for providing scholarships, including rules and deadlines for scholarship applications.

In the final report on the impact of regulation, the ministry stated that the aim of the proposal is to support individuals primarily engaged in artistic activities outside of employment relationships. "The gathered background analyses indicate that this group of artists is the most at risk, facing a number of disadvantages and obstacles in their professional activities," the report states. The introduction of artist status is part of the National Recovery Plan, which defines reforms and investments for which the European Union will provide funding.

The National Recovery Plan was created to mitigate the impacts of the COVID-19 epidemic and to restart the economy using European funds from the EU Recovery and Resilience Facility from 2021 to 2027. Last September, the European Commission approved its revised version and simultaneously increased the amount of money allocated for the Czech Republic by 2.2 billion euros to 9.2 billion euros (232.5 billion crowns).