The EU Council would be willing to make concessions on the principle of equitable remuneration (Article -14) and the revocation mechanism (Article 16) in copyright reform provided that the European Parliament gives way to the neighbouring right (Article 11) and the value gap (Article 13). This was the outcome of a meeting of the Member States' permanent representatives to the EU (Coreper) on Wednesday 12 December, on the eve of an expected final trilogue (see EUROPE 12147).
In a document dated 10 December, the Austrian Presidency of the Council reviewed the current negotiations on this text, which proposes to create a neighbouring right for press publishers and addresses the distribution of income from an online work. It states that "substantial progress has been made, in particular on the chapter on exceptions and limitations, on non-commercial works (including Article 9a of the Council), as well as on important parts of the chapter on remuneration, which were part of the Commission's initial proposal". It identifies Articles 11, 13, -14, 14(3) and 16 as the main questions still open and questions Member States on the Presidency's room for manoeuvre.
At the end of the Coreper meeting on 12 December, it seems that the Council is ready to take a step towards the European Parliament to: (1) include, in an article (and not a recital), a contractual right to appropriate remuneration, while leaving it to national law to specify this principle; (2) provide for a mechanism for revocation of a licence or transfer of rights in the event of failure to exploit the work for lack of exploitation of the work (but not for lack of reporting). These concessions, the Member States would have pointed out, would correspond to the price to be paid to win the right of press publishers (Article 11) and the value gap (Article 13), i.e. to obtain something similar to the May mandate (see EUROPE 12027). However, the Presidency would have suggested that it could rely on the compromise proposal submitted by the European Commission on the value gap (see EUROPE 12147).
The trilogue should start in the morning and end at 6 pm at the latest.
Stakeholders on the lookout
A few hours before a crucial negotiation meeting, each stakeholder is trying to make its voice heard by the negotiators.
For example, let us mention this joint declaration, co-signed by the authors and performers, which pleads for a right to high remuneration, in line with what the European Parliament is calling for in its negotiating mandate, or this press release from press publishers, which denounces Google's bad faith in the debate surrounding the creation of a neighbouring right. Or this declaration by the audiovisual sector on Article 13, which calls for not further extending the exemption from liability currently enjoyed by platforms or for them to be beneficiaries as well.
Conversely, there is the petition #SaveTheInternet, signed by more than 4 million people, which opposes section 13 in the name of freedom of expression. This petition, supported by MEP Julia Reda (Greens/EFA, Germany), is being pushed by online platforms(Google, Facebook, etc.), through CCIA and C4C.
It should be noted that the Corporate Europe Observatory has published a study on the intense lobbying carried out so far on this copyright reform.
Table 4 columns: https://goo.gl/KbqPey (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)