Negotiations between the European Parliament and the Council of the EU made good progress on the question of exceptions to the rules on copyright, at the second (trilogue) negotiating session on 25 October (see EUROPE 12110). Many questions, however, remain unanswered, such as the right to compulsory remuneration (see EUROPE 12100). The next inter-institutional meeting will be held on 26 November.
Readers may recall that this reform, which was presented in September 2016, introduces new exceptions to the copyright rules and sets out new provisions to ensure a better protection of protected works.
Progress on the exceptions
“We have made good progress on the exceptions, but nothing else”, said MEP Julia Reda (Greens/EFA, Germany), who has undertaken to make these negotiations as transparent as possible (she has, for instance, published the latest four-column table summarising the positions of the three institutions). According to several sources of information, the co-legislators seem to have reached an agreement on the exceptions for text and data mining, digital and cross-border educational activities and for cultural heritage (articles 3 to 6). However, the European Commission hopes to intervene to make the exception to the rules for text and data mining compulsory beyond research, whereas the Parliament and Council both call for this to remain optional.
Remuneration: the Commission is working on it
The co-legislators briefly touched upon other provisions of the reform. Amongst other things, they discussed the idea of a compulsory right to remuneration (article 14) introduced by the Parliament. During the discussions, the MEPs stressed the importance of such a provision, whilst the Council has highlighted the fact that no impact assessment has been carried out, and warned against the ensuing disproportionate burden. On the basis of this exchange, the Commission has undertaken to present a compromise proposal in the coming days.
The co-legislators also discussed the creation of a neighbouring right for publishers (article 11) and that of the value gap (article 13), without making any great strides.
Next steps
The experts of the member states ('intellectual property' attachés) are to meet on 30 October to discuss these two articles and suggestions from the Austrian Presidency of the Council on articles 7 to 10 (exception related to cultural heritage, cross-border use, dialogue between stakeholders and negotiating mechanism).
The date of the next trilogue sessions have been confirmed as 26 November and 13 December, with the possible addition of a third meeting if necessary, to wrap up the dossier. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)