However, the hearing itself provides a first view on his ambitions and missions in his new role as a commissioner, officially now beginning on December 1. Moderated by Nele Riehl (Volt), Chair of the Committee on Culture and Education in the EU Parliament, Micallef explained his ideas on a programme item called ‘Intergenerational Fairness’ right at the start of the hearing. According to this, all EU Commission measures are supposed to be evaluated in the coming years with regard to youth-specific aspects. According to Micallef, political dialogues relevant to young people will be held for this purpose and a committee set up specifically for this purpose will be introduced. He also announced the introduction of a measure called ‘Culture Compass’, which will analyse the multidisciplinary impact of culture on EU policymaking.
Within the first half hour of the hearing, MEP Hannes Heide (S&D Group) put forward his questions on the ‘Status of Artists’ legislative initiative adopted by the EU Parliament last year, which aims to improve the working conditions of artists and cultural professionals in the EU. It is now up to the European Commission to transform the parliamentary resolution into a regulation. In fact, this resolution has the potential to fundamentally reform employment conditions in all cultural sectors, including the music industry. One of the core approaches of this political initiative is to standardise labour and social working conditions in the cultural sector across Europe. In France, for example, freelancers are entitled to have access to unemployment benefits, while in Germany an artists' social security fund provides comparable social benefits towards pension insurance for self-employed workers. For clients in the concert industry or labels, such a set of rules would have a lasting impact on business relationships with artists and freelance workers.
Heide asked Micallef explicitly about his ‘roadmap’ for the implementation of the aforementioned legislative initiative and the organisation of the associated legislation. Micallef's response was rather general, saying that he believed ‘artists should be able to focus on their creativity and not have to worry about their livelihood’. Nevertheless, in his response he addressed the atypical employment relationships and difficult working conditions, which also have an impact on the competitiveness of this sector. He also referred to the economic importance of the cultural and creative industries, but noted that 46 per cent of employees in these sectors work under precarious working conditions. He was aware of this and reported that there was already consultation with the EU member states in this regard. He also announced that he intended to organise a ‘High Level Round Table’ with social partners, market participants and MEPs in the first few months of his term of office. There will also be regular workshops with the member states on this topic.
Like Heide, Micallef is a member of the Social Democrats. A representative of a party on the far right of the political spectrum asked Micallef about his stance on the remuneration of performance rights for European repertoire in third countries of which, for example, there are no reciprocity agreements existing. Micallef responded to the question and emphasised that he was committed to dialogue and communication and that he would work towards this, particularly with regard to the remuneration of performance rights for live music events in the digital sector.
MEP Erik Marquardt from the Green Group asked Micallef what measures he would consider with regard to fair, transparent and sustainable remuneration for music creators through streaming platforms. Micallef referred to the existing catalogue of laws in the area of the Digital Service Act, the Copyright Directive and with regard to AI, there is already a good basis. However, their implementation has so far only existed on ‘paper’. An evaluation is already being carried out by the EU Commission, which in turn also includes the possibility of adopting further legal measures.
Micallef also answered numerous other questions from MEPs on topics such as the Erasmus education programme, sports policy and the financial volume of the culture budget in the EU budget. At the subsequent press conference, Riehl, in her capacity as Chair of the Culture Committee, have been available for questions by journalists. It is perhaps worth noting that this lasted just five minutes, which is at least an indicator of the media attention paid to cultural policy in the EU Parliament.
In terms of EU administrative procedures, Micallef previously gained experience between 2020-2024 as the head of the Secretariat of the Maltese Prime Minister and as Malta's “sherpa” at the European Council. Before this post, he worked as a research analyst for the Maltese Ministry for EU Affairs. He holds a master's degree in European politics, law and economics from the University of Malta.