As a continuation of the European Circus Manifesto, the European Union is working on classifying circuses in Europe based on a quality assurance rating system.

The Manifesto, which was signed by several European circus organizations in January, urged the circus community to address the needs and challenges of the changing state of circus arts in Europe. Istvan Ujhelyi, Vice Chair of Transport and Tourism Committee in the European Parliament, introduced the need for a coordinated policy in order to preserve the values of circus arts within the European Union. As part of his initiative, Ujhelyi presented a classification method, similar to the restaurant industry’s Michelin-star certification that provides a quality assurance system for European circuses. The first workshop that determined the framework of the Big Top Label (BTL) took place in Brussels on the 31st of May. It was a historical event as two circus-theme meetings have never been held within 7 months at the European Parliament before. The workshop focused on collecting ideas about how to establish an objective, effective, transparent, comprehensive and impartial ...