Brussels, 28/01/2015 (Agence Europe) - In an exchange of views with MEPs from the “culture” committee at the European Parliament on Tuesday 27 January, the European Commissioner for the Digital Economy, Gunter Oettinger explained that reform of copyright rules and revision of the Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD) would be at the top of the European Commission's priority list in the digital and audiovisual policy field for 2015.
European legislation has to fit in with the rapid development of technologies and it is essential that the digital single market becomes a reality, so that major players like Google can no longer take advantage of the vagueness provoked by 28 different national legislations, added the commissioner. He explained “We want a digital union. In May, with Mr Ansip and my colleagues, we will present our strategy for the digital single market and the modules that will be important for 2015 and 2016”.
The commissioner skimmed over a number of important points with MEPs, which will be on the Commission digital agenda this year. It is an ambitious programme: 1) Data protection regulation: “we are optimistic that the Council (of Ministers) and the Parliament will reach a decision before the end of 2015”; 2) “Connected Continent” package: “I am optimistic; I hope that the Latvian presidency will be able to obtain a mandate for negotiating with the EP, before the end of February”. Remaining sensitive questions such as net neutrality, roaming and radio spectrum frequency; 3) the “Information Systems” directive; work is on the right track at the Council. “This is an important question for information security… We should be able to conclude the dossier before the end of 2015”; 4) Copyright: the texts on this question are obsolete. “We will produce a modern proposal for adapting copyright to the digital era, in the summer or autumn”. The question of payment for authors and the right of access to content will be at the centre of the debates. There are important players such as Google, who are not agreeing to play ball and it is important that there is a mechanism that can be respected by everyone, explained the Commissioner; 5) AVMSD: “we will review the text and I plan to complete this operation before the end of 2015”. The Commission would like to present a proposal so that the debate can follow its course until the middle of 2016, with the relevant actors concerned; 6) Digitalisation of cultural resources: the digital section of “Connecting Europe” will have €1 billion less but we will find other budgetary sources to go in the direction of this digitalisation of cultural heritage, asserted Oettinger; 7) Juncker Investment Plan: digitalisation has a key place in this plan, which underlines the need to invest in digital infrastructure, particularly because it is important to have a high-speed territorial extension in rural areas; 8) Digital Skills: dialogue has to be carried out with the member states in an effort to see what information technology skills are required. The Commissioner explained that this was not just a question of training specialists but the population as a whole.
Several MEPs called on the Commissioner for guarantees to protect the “cultural exception” in the TTIP negotiations, including audiovisual services (Krystyna Maria Lybacka, S&D, Poland; Sabine Verheyen, EPP, Germany; Bogdan Andrzej Zdrojewski, EPP, Poland). Many questions were to do with points of detail in the programme presented by the Commission. Questions were therefore directed to the issue of the AVMSD, which is very important for the culture committee, explained its chairperson, Silvia Costa (S&D, Italy), who asked the Commission to come up with a proposal soon on ensuring that legislation complies with the current audiovisual landscape. In the area of copyright, Verheyen asked whether it would be better to develop a regulation or a directive in this field and Isabella Adinolfi (EFDD, Italy) wanted to know what had been envisaged for the harmonisation of works of art in the public domain. In reply to a specific question from Fernando Maura Barandiarán (ALDE, Spain) about Google, Gunther Oettinger declared that they needed “to see what they could do to avoid undermining copyright” and repeated that there had still not been a decision on imposing a tax on the US group and that there were possible solutions that could be envisaged as part of competition law. (IL)