Brussels, 27/05/2009 (Agence Europe) - Progress is being made towards pan-European music licensing following discussions in the Online Commerce Roundtable on Tuesday 26 May. “There is a clear willingness expressed by major players in the online distribution of music in Europe to tackle the many barriers which prevent consumers from fully benefiting from the opportunities that the internet provides”, Ms Kroes was pleased to say. The report published on this roundtable, which was launched in September 2008 by the competition commissioner with a view to reducing online trade barriers (see EUROPE 9744), shows the determination of collecting societies and stakeholders to progressively choose collective EEA-wide licensing for musical works, thus allowing the development of online offers. The market's potential is currently hampered by rights generally being territorial and usually licensed for certain territories only. The Commission is especially pleased with the promise made by the collecting company SACEM to entrust other collecting societies with the pan-European licensing of its repertoire and to act as non-exclusive rights manager for publishers and other collecting societies. It also welcomes confirmation by EMI, the multinational music publisher, that it is ready to entrust rights managers its repertoire for the whole EEA, and notes Apple's statements that, if iTunes is readily able to license rights on a multi-territorial basis from publishers and collecting societies, it would consider making its content available to all European consumers, including those in EU countries where iTunes is currently not available. For further information: http: //ec.europa.eu/competition/consultations/2009_online_commerce/ roundtable_ report_en.pdf. (I.L./transl.jl)