The Road Ahead – what 2013 looks like for us.

Brussels is scarcely getting back into gear following the Christmas break, yet already we’re looking ahead to 2013. There is plenty going on across the Brussels-based institutions that we will be heavily involved with in the year to come – so stay tuned for updates here!

Here are just a few of the highlights:

Ireland take the Presidency

We were delighted to see the Irish take the helm of the Presidency at the start of this month. They are already showing their commitment to 2013’s overarching theme – the Year of the Citizens – with a keen interest in WIPO’s (The World Intellectual Property Organisation) treaty on the visually impaired and print-disabled, and in the Collective Rights Management Directive.

Of course, the Collective Rights Management Directive is of particular interest to us, and we’ve been engaging with a range of Brussels-based stakeholders since the Commission published its proposal in July last year. We share completely the Commission’s desire to create common standards on governance and transparency; but we think more needs to be done to clarify some of the text’s ambiguities and to fill in its gaps. We look forward to talking our views through with the Presidency.

CRM directive – follow-up

  • The European Parliament

Marielle Gallo , the rapporteur for the CRM Directive, is gearing up to publish her working document in  January and the draft report is planned for end of March or beginning or April. She’ll have her work cut out before then, rounding off her technical meetings with the Commission and organising a public hearing on the file.

Alongside this, various committees will have their chance to mull the draft proposal in the months to come – Education and Culture; Industry, Research and Energy; Internal Market and Consumer Protection; and the Internal Trade committee.

 

  • The European Economic and Social Committee

The EESC has already given their point of view on the CRM file, voting in their December plenary session on its ‘Opinion’ report drafted by Mr Lemercier.

 

  • ·          Other initiatives

Licensing Europe Just before the Christmas break, the European Commission launched an exciting stakeholder platform – Licensing Europe – that will meet for the first time this month. Gesac, the force behind this website, intends to be fully committed to this platform.

Licensing Europe has four key points of interest, namely:

1 Cross border access and portability of service

2 User-generated content and licensing for small-scale users of protected material

3 Audiovisual sector and cultural heritage institutions

4 Text and data mining.

 

Private copying  Antonio Vitorino will publish his assessment of private copying schemes in January, which will be a springboard for the Commission to draft a series of recommendations and follow-up actions.

 

Stakeholder dialogue on resale right

We’ll be heavily involved in the Commission’s series of one-day meetings on resale right in the first few months of this year, the first coming up on January 30. The meetings will aim to work out how we can improve the management of resale right while keeping costs to a minimum.

 

Data protection

Following the presentation by Jan Albrecht of his report on the New Data Protection Framework, Gesac will take part in a roundtable discussion led by Axel Voss – shadow rapporteur – on 29th January.