France and Germany Unite Over Authors’ Rights, Culture and Media

With the common goal of harmonizing decision-making processes of the two countries, the Franco-German Ministerial Council met in Metz (Moselle) on 7 April to come to common agreements on authors’ rights, culture and media. Audrey Azoulay, the Minister of Culture and Communication of France, and Heiko Maas, the Federal Minister of Justice and Consumer Protection of Germany, issued a joint declaration on authors’ rights. The statement proclaims that authors’ rights is pivotal in supporting innovation in technology, economic models and practices.

France and Germany welcomed the 9 December 2015 European Commission presentation on an authors’ rights reform action plan and the draft regulation on the portability of online content services. The two countries also will support the process of reform through finding common positions to promote authors’ rights and, if necessary, contribute to adapt the European framework for authors’ rights to new conditions for creating, distributing and using cultural goods. They came to an agreement that economic models that focus on territorial rights should be taken into consideration as well, particularly in audiovisual and cinema.  Any initiatives should respect the principle of subsidiarity, being undertaken at the European level only if added value has been demonstrated and their effects have been carefully studied.

The declaration provided the following guidelines for future discussions:

• Take into consideration the role of new platforms and digital intermediaries to ensure creators a fair remuneration and equal opportunity to benefit from these new possibilities;
• Preserve of the current collective rights management system in examining the viability of rules on exceptions and private copying remuneration, including the distribution process of remunerations to rights holders;
• The respect of the principle of subsidiarity between the European Union and its Member States.

Cultural Exception

In addition to this, a common declaration on culture and media was also declared with Monika Grütters, the Minister for Culture and Media of Germany. Audrey Azoulay and Heiko Maas addressed the protection and promotion of cultural diversity. This united vision is focused particularly on guiding the work towards a single digital market in Europe in all initiatives to provide access to legal digital offers. The two ministers also reaffirmed their position to maintain the cultural exception in trade agreements, particularly in the proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), in order to promote and protect cultural diversity. Finally, they welcomed the creation of a tool against the illegal traffic of cultural goods.