Work is resuming at the European Parliament on copyright reform. Political group negotiators held a two hour meeting on Wednesday 29 August to discuss the European Parliament plenary rejection at the beginning of July of the judicial affairs committee's negotiating mandate (see EUROPE 12056).
Rapporteur Axel Voss (EPP, Germany) promised a new compromise by the end of the week.
It should be recalled that the draft directive presented in September 2016 introduces new exceptions to copyright rules and sets out new provisions to ensure the appropriate functioning of the market when using protected content and other objects.
The Council reached its negotiating position at the end of May (see EUROPE 12027). Parliament is struggling to reach a position on the matter. On 5 July, a majority of MEPs (318 against, 278 for, with 31 abstentions) effectively rejected the negotiating mandate conferred by the judicial affairs committee to Axel Voss, mainly because of the controversial provisions on the question of the value gap (article 13) (see EUROPE 12056).
According to the information we have received, during the meeting on 29 August, Axel Voss outlined four possible scenarios available to him, namely: - substantially amending the parliamentary committee's mandate; - amending the mandate in the margins; - accepting the position of the internal market committee or; - withdrawing the reference to 'technical measures'.
The rapporteur would be committed to presenting a compromise proposal by Friday, 31 August. At this stage it is difficult to know in what direction this proposal will go, given that the positions diverge between the political groups and within the groups themselves. Mr Voss could possibly move to an amendment “in the margins” of the mandate, according to information provided to us by one source.
The only certainty involves the schedule: a second (and final) meeting of the shadow rapporteurs is due to take place on 4 September and the submission of amendments has been set for the day after (5). A second vote during the European Parliament plenary session will be held on Wednesday 12 September in Strasbourg. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)