Brussels, 27/10/2008 (Agence Europe) - French culture minister Christine Albanel called on Friday 24 October 2008 for an “EU statute for cultural SMEs” to reinforce their role and ensure their economic viability. Under the French Presidency of the EU, Albanel had organised with Impala, a European independent record label, an event in Paris to defend and highlight the work of independent operators in the music, book and cinema world.
After the event, the participants submitted a number of proposals to the minister in a “statement from the independents” addressed to EU member states and institutions. In the statement, cultural enterprises say they back the adoption of the new French “Creation and Internet” law to tackle pirate music and DVDs. The new law will be presented to the French Senate on 29 October 2008. The independents call for a reduction in VAT on all cultural products, and new competition rules that take greater account of their problems, introducing a raft of positive discrimination measures at EU level to ensure independents do not have to pay more for publicity than big chains. Impala president, Patrick Zelnick, said that the independents were not only suffering from piracy but also from business concentration because the music business is a market of oligopolies where two companies tend to dominate. Between 80% and 90% of shelf space in hypermarkets is filled by Universal Music and Sony BMG, he explained, adding that Impala was making recommendations to ensure that cultural SMEs had access to positive discrimination. Independent record labels account for 80% of new music and independent films account for 85% of the films that win prizes at Cannes, Venice and Berlin. Independents want a special status for European cultural SMEs and for their key role as talent scouts to be recognised. They also want inter-professional deals to ensure longer shelf life for films in the cinema, CDs, DVDs and books. Albanel pledged to rapidly draw up a series of measures to take account of the situation, which she would then submit to the European Commission and other European culture ministers. She said her suggestions might be incorporated in an “EU statute for cultural SMEs”. (I.L./trans.fl)