Brussels, 25/03/2015 (Agence Europe) - The European Coalition for Cultural Diversity (ECCD) has given its backing to the joint statement by four culture ministers calling for a reduced rate of VAT to be applied to digital books (see EUROPE 11278).
In a press release on 24 March, the organisation says that it is “positive and welcome” that the German, French, Italian and Polish ministers have called on the European Commission to take immediate action in proposing a change to European VAT legislation. Like the ministers, the ECCD believes that a literary work remains a cultural creation, no matter in which version it is distributed, digital or paper. It calls on the European institutions and all the other member states to give a positive response to the call launched to remedy an incoherent and unjust European law as quickly as possible, after the Court of Justice of the EU recently ruled against France and Luxembourg for applying a reduced rate of VAT to digital books. (Isabelle Lamberty)