Brussels, October 22, 2018

The European Writers’ Council letter to European Commission Vice-President Andrus Ansip, Commissioner Mariya Gabriel, corresponding Cabinet Members, and European Commission Copyright Unit,was aimed at confirming that the EWC has been very consistent about objecting to the addition of Public Lending Right [PLR] in article 12 of the proposal for a Directive. The letter also mentioned and attached the previous statements on the same issue ever since the Estonian EU Presidency added PLR, including the FEP-EWC-CEATL message.

The main argument presented was that our national writers’ associations strongly believe that cultural diversity would be one of the areas affected. The PLR systems, which differ in many countries, from either cultural policy or copyright legal frameworks, would be disrupted in several Member States if article 12 has this PLR addition.