Brussels, 06/06/2001 (Agence Europe) - Last Friday, the Council and the European Parliament reached an agreement on the directive defining the "resale right" that artists are entitled to when their works are sold. Parliament Rapporteur Jürgen Zimmerling (CDU, Germany) welcomed the agreement which harmonises the rules for resale of original works, reached after a difficult conciliation procedure. The president of the Internal Market Council, Leif Pagrotsky, told the press he welcomed the end of a long series of meetings and "lunches" on this subject, which, he said, he did not wish to hear mentioned again. The Council and the EP approved the agreement, to be formally adopted by the EP on 11 June.
At the end of the day, the Council accepted the compromise proposed by the chairman of the parliamentary delegation, Ingo Friedrich (CSU, Germany), concerning two EP amendments that were still giving rise to differences of opinion: 1) the minimum sales price from which the authors may demand a resale right: the threshold will be EUR 3,000 (instead of 4,500 foreseen by the Council and the EUR 1,000 threshold recommended by the EP and supported by artists); 2) the deadline for implementation of the directive, that will be generally 4 years (instead of 5 foreseen by the Council and 2 recommended by the EP) and 6 years for States that do not currently apply the resale right (instead of 10 proposed by the Council and 2 requested by the EP).
The Parliament, however, did not win the day concerning its amendment which would have abolished the maximum ceiling for royalties that the artist may receive. This maximum amount will therefore be EUR 12,500. Fearing relocation of the large European auction houses such as Sotheby's and Christie's, the United Kingdom had put its two feet firmly down to stop adoption of the legislation and insisted on keeping the ceiling.
Jürgen Zimmerling states in a press release, however, that the "European Parliament was once again able to make good use of its powers to make the European general interest prevail over the position of certain Member States".
Ingo Friedrich recalled the extreme diversity of situations in different Member States. Thus, in Germany, the application of the resale right has been usual practice over the past twenty years, whereas, for example, some countries like Luxembourg have brought in such a right but do not apply it. Again, in others, such as the United Kingdom, Ireland and Austria, there is no resale right. This is why over 90% of auction sales in Europe take place in London, at Sotheby's and Christie's, comments Mr Friedrich.