Touring Europe after Brexit, 2026: still no deal on visas, cabotage or carnets

Five years after the Trade and Cooperation Agreement left touring out, a UK band booking an EU run in autumn 2026 works under the same core rules on stays, vans and carnets that applied in 2021. What has changed is the paperwork around the debate. Brussels published a visa strategy that names touring artists. MPs published a report asking for a deal. The government published research putting a price on the damage. None of it has yet changed a rule.

What did the EU's visa strategy actually say?

The Commission's visa policy strategy, published on 29 January 2026, restates the rule: visa-free and visa-required visitors can stay in the Schengen area for up to 90 days in any 180, and longer stays need a national long-stay visa or residence permit. It then names touring artists first in a list of professionals, alongside athletes and truck drivers, who may need to move between member states for more than 90 days in 180 without living in the EU. The Commission says it will look for "pragmatic solutions" for extended short stays and explore new EU-level rules to allow them.

The Musicians' Union welcomed the paper on 10 February, describing it as exploring possible visa waivers and extended short stays. Read the text itself and the touring-specific promise is narrower: the visa-waiver passages deal with which countries get visa-free travel in general, a status UK passport holders already have. The touring commitment is to "explore" longer stays. It is a plan to think, not a draft law.

The same paragraph contains a catch. The Commission says it will review bilateral agreements that let some member states allow stays beyond 90 days, "with a view to gradually phasing them out".

Where do the UK–EU talks stand?

The Culture, Media and Sport Committee's report on cultural touring, published on 15 June 2026, found witnesses saw no follow-through on the 2025 summit's commitment to touring artists. Kate Nash told MPs her last European tour lost about £26,000. The committee noted the Commission's view that it would not revisit the TCA on touring, and recommended the government push on short-term touring, extended stays, customs and cabotage, pursue bilateral deals, and set up a touring advice hub within twelve months.

The government's reply, published on 4 September, agreed with the aims and committed to little. It said it would not give "a running commentary" on talks. It has no plans to subsidise carnets or guarantee their cost, no plans to make St Pancras a CITES port for instruments containing protected materials, and no hub, only improved GOV.UK guidance. The bilateral success it cites dates from February 2025, when Croatia dropped visa and work-permit requirements for UK nationals on stays under three months.

The youth experience scheme is the deal most likely to land, and it is not a touring deal. The European Parliament's research service describes it as covering work, study, au-pairing and volunteering for people aged 18 to 30, with a dedicated visa route and possibly a cap. MPs said it "alone will not address the wider barriers facing cultural touring". The summit meant to close it, set for 22 July, was postponed after Keir Starmer resigned, with both sides aiming for one "later in the year".

What is it costing?

Research by Ipsos and Nordicity for DCMS, published on 27 August, estimates the UK lost £208.0 million in GVA and 2,490 full-time-equivalent jobs between 2022 and 2024, counting indirect effects. Those are modelled figures, built by comparing EU touring with US touring as a counterfactual. UK artists' EU performances in 2024 were 21% below 2019, and the report says shows at smaller general live venues, unlike arenas and stadiums, have not recovered. Interviewees described crews being hired for EU passports and haulage and merch work moving to EU firms.

What we think

The one idea on the table, extended short stays, fixes the wrong tour. It matters to orchestras, crew and anyone on the road for months. A four-piece doing twelve dates in a fortnight doesn't hit 90 days; it hits the van rules, the carnet bill and the merch declaration. Those sit in customs and haulage law, which the visa strategy doesn't touch, and the Commission and UK government say there is no prospect of changing the TCA soon.

Bilateral deals, the committee's fallback, have a ceiling too. Member states set work-permit rules, so country-by-country deals like Croatia's are real gains, and the EU's research service says 24 of the 27 member states already offer some time-limited permit-free route. But the 90/180 clock is Schengen law, and the Commission now wants to phase out the national exceptions to it. Only EU law can lift that limit.

Meanwhile enforcement has tightened. The Entry/Exit System has registered UK travellers' entries and exits since 12 October 2025, and the Commission says it alerts member states to overstayers. Whatever slack hand-stamped passports left a busy session player or tour manager working for several acts, a logged crossing removes. The DCMS research already found hiring tilting to EU passport holders, and automated counting can only push further that way. UK crew lose; EU hauliers, merch fulfilment firms and EU-passport crew win.

Two things are within the UK's power alone: a guarantee to cut the upfront security on carnets, and the advice hub MPs asked for. The government declined both. Its reply argues it can't interpret other countries' rules, but a hub that only collected and kept current the official guidance from all 27 would still save every small act the research the Musicians' Union told MPs it does at its own risk. For how much merch decides whether a tour pays, see Los Campesinos!' published tour accounts.

A checklist for a UK band booking an EU run

This is a summary of official guidance, not legal advice. Rules vary by country and change, so check each destination's own rules before you book. The GOV.UK touring guidance below was last updated in November 2022.

1. Count Schengen days per person. Everyone on the run, crew included, gets 90 days in any 180 across all Schengen trips, holidays too. EES records each entry and exit; Ireland and Cyprus are outside Schengen.
2. Check work rules country by country. GOV.UK's musicians' checklist says many member states offer permit-free routes for short touring, but durations and definitions differ.
3. Watch for ETIAS. The FCDO says the EU expects to start ETIAS from autumn 2026, with a €20 fee; the start date will be announced, and any site selling it now is fraudulent.
4. Instruments. Gear travelling with you may enter under temporary admission by oral declaration or the green channel; freighted gear can use an ATA carnet. The government says a carnet covers unlimited trips for a year, went digital on 1 June 2026, and that the London Chamber of Commerce offers about 40% off issuing fees to members of certain musician groups.
5. Protected materials. Instruments with ivory or some timbers need a CITES certificate and a designated port; a musical instrument certificate is free and lasts three years. St Pancras isn't designated.
6. Merch. Goods for sale must be declared under the destination's customs rules. The DCMS report notes import VAT, a possible EORI number and EU declarations typically above €1,000.
7. Vehicles. A splitter van carrying the band and its gear is not subject to the UK haulier limits; member states' own rules apply. A UK goods vehicle gets up to two extra EU movements, at most one cabotage within 7 days, in the country where it first unloaded. Hauliers with a base both in and outside Great Britain can use dual registration to work under EU rules.
8. Tax and social security. Apply early to HMRC for an A1 certificate, which confirms you pay UK National Insurance; the DCMS report found promoters withholding up to 20% of fees over missing paperwork. Expect local withholding tax, and slow refunds.

Sources

• European Commission, Communication on EU visa policy strategy, COM(2026) 43 (29 Jan 2026)
• Musicians' Union, MU Welcomes EU Visa Policy Strategy Paper (10 Feb 2026)
• Culture, Media and Sport Committee, Cultural touring in the EU, HC 141 (15 Jun 2026)
• Culture, Media and Sport Committee, Cultural touring in the EU: Government response, HC 606 (4 Sep 2026)
• European Parliamentary Research Service, EU-UK relations: Mobility and youth opportunities (Mar 2026), and its Epthinktank summary
• DCMS, The economic benefits of touring and impact of EU exit (27 Aug 2026)
• GOV.UK, Working, performing and touring in Europe: musical artists and accompanying staff
• GOV.UK, EU Entry/Exit System
• GOV.UK, Dual registration for specialist events hauliers
• Senedd Research, What could a UK-EU youth experience scheme mean for Wales? (6 Aug 2026)