Brussels, 12/09/2011 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 12 September, the Council of the EU adopted without debate, by qualified majority, a directive which increases the term of protection of the rights of performers and producers on musical recordings within the EU from 50 years to 70. The Belgian, Czech, Dutch, Luxembourg, Romanian, Slovak, Slovenian and Swedish delegations voted against and the Austrian and Estonian delegations abstained. The new directive intends to increase the level of protection of performers by acknowledging their creative and artistic contributions. Performers generally start their careers young and the current term of protection of 50 years often does not protect their performances for their entire lifetime. The directive also harmonises the method for calculating the term of protection for songs and other music compositions with lyrics created by several authors. The term of protection will expire 70 years after the death of the last person to survive - the author of the lyrics or the composer of the music. (I.L./transl.fl)