July 18, 2018.

On 5 July, the European Parliament decided to postpone the adoption of its position on the Copyright Directive. We acknowledged this decision.2 However, we expressed our regret that it “delays the adoption of the Copyright Directive, which features essential provisions to rebalance the systemic weak bargaining situation of authors,

whose creativity is at the very origin of the copyright value chain, in negotiating their contracts”. We called on all MEPS to find a common line to ensure that the Directive is finally adopted. We stressed that Chapter 3, “Fair remuneration in contracts of authors and performers”, as adopted by the JURI committee on June 20th, was a result of balanced compromises supported by an overwhelming, non-partisan majority in the Legal Affairs committee. It secured critical improvements of the situation of creators throughout Europe, and therefore should not be reopened nor amended.

We prompted the EP to adopt the Copyright Directive as soon as possible; postponing its adoption would be “a failure to deliver any concrete improvement to the situation of European authors and be an appalling missed opportunity to strengthen the creative community and Europe’s cultural wealth in the digital era”.