On 5 July, the European Parliament decided to postpone the adoption of its position on the Copyright Directive.

As representatives of over half a million writers, composers, journalists, film directors, screenwriters and songwriters in Europe, we acknowledge and respect this decision.

However, we regret that it effectively delays the adoption of the Copyright Directive, which features essential provisions to rebalance the systemic weak bargaining situation of authors, whose creativity is at the very origin of the copyright value chain, in negotiating their contracts. We now call on all Members of European Parliament to measure the significance of this Directive and to find a common line to ensure that the Directive is finally adopted.

Chapter 3 “Fair remuneration in contracts of authors and performers”, as adopted by the JURI committee on June 20th, is a result of balanced compromises supported by an overwhelming, non-partisan majority in the Legal Affairs committee. It secures critical improvements of the situation of creators throughout Europe, and therefore should not be reopened nor amended.

In our view, it is crucial that the European Parliament adopts the Copyright Directive as soon as possible so that it can soon bring concrete benefits to authors across the European Union.

Throwing the Directive away by postponing its adoption would be a failure to deliver any concrete improvement to the situation of European authors and be an appalling missed opportunity to strengthen the creative community and Europe’s cultural wealth in the digital era.

Sincerely yours,

The Authors’ Group

The Authors’ Group is composed of:

ECSA (European Composer and Songwriter Alliance)

EFJ (European Federation of Journalists)

EWC (European Writers Council)

FERA (Federation of European Film Directors)

FSE (Federation of Screenwriters in Europe)

Find the statement in pdf here.