July 7, 2018.

On 5 July 2018, the EP plenary vote rejected the JURI Committees report on the Copyright Directive, and as a result, the process for it to start the trilogue negotiations was suspended. There were reportedly 627 MEPs present during the vote (out of the 750 MEPs in total), with 278 MEPs in favour, 318 against and 31 abstentions.

The main articles for the arguments against the support to JURI were article 13 (on the value gap); article 11 on the press publishers’ rights, under the heavy influence of digital platforms and global technology companies and consumer/user organisations; and article 14b which in their arguments “was not making a case for an unwaivable remuneration for authors”. Consequently, the Authors’ Group expressed its respect for the decision of the EP to postpone the adoption of its position on the Directive, yet called on MEPs to maintain their support to authors.

We stated, as The Authors’ Group:

“We acknowledge the decision of the European Parliament to postpone the adoption of its position on the Copyright Directive. We now call on the European Parliament to maintain their strong and cross-party support to reinforce the contractual position of authors in Europe so that the Copyright Directive can soon bring concrete benefits to authors’ rights in the European Union. This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to help improve authors’ rights and to improve the social and economic situation of authors all over Europe.”