Brussels, 22/10/2009 (Agence Europe) - The creation of a digital single market is indeed desirable to give fresh impetus to the sector, give consumers a wider choice at attractive prices and combat illegal downloading, but it is still necessary to resolve the regulatory and geographical obstacles to its development. In order to overcome these obstacles, the European Commission launched reflection on Thursday to sound out the parties concerned and find new ideas for triggering change. On one hand, it has published a document in which it sets out its single market vision for creative online content and, on the other, a public consultation has been launched to learn the views of three categories of stakeholders: rightholders, consumers and commercial users. “It will be my key priority over the next years to work, in cooperation with other Commissioners, on a simple consumer-friendly legal framework for making digital content available across borders in the EU, while ensuring at the same time a robust protection of copyright and a fair remuneration of creators”, commented Commissioner Viviane Reding, responsible for information society and the media. Speaking of the evolution of industrial and intellectual property protection in Europe, the commissioner for the internal market, Charlie McCreevy, said: “This is a priority for reform: grounded on sound economics, not just legal concepts, and concentrating on solutions that foster innovation and investment in real life”.
In its policy paper, the Commission identifies three aspects on which there must be legislation in order to: 1) make sure that creativity is rewarded so that creators, rightholders and Europe's cultural diversity can thrive in the digital world; 2) give consumers clearly-priced, legal means of accessing a wide range of content through digital networks anywhere, anytime; and 3) promote a level playing field for new business models and innovative solutions for the distribution of creative content across the EU. At the present time, the cultural and creative sector generates an annual turnover of more than €650 billion and contributes up to 2.6% of EU GDP. It employs over 3% of the active population. The setting up of a real single market could allow retail receipts to be quadrupled, if appropriate measures are adopted, the Commission states. (I.L./transl.jl)