Today, Communia and 145 organisations published an open letter to the Committee of the Permanent Representatives of the Governments of the Member States to the European Union (COREPER). That group meets tomorrow, and the Bulgarian presidency will be pushing for all Member States to endorse its proposed changes to the draft Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market. Earlier this week we previewed these latest changes, warning that there’s danger ahead if the Council adopts the still-unsatisfactory updates to Article 13, 11, and 3a.
The letter is critical of the compromised proposed by the Bulgarian Presidency and calls upon COREPER to continue the discussions on the copyright reform. We ask for COREPER not grant the Bulgarian Council Presidency a mandate to negotiate with the European Parliament. From the letter:
We are deeply concerned that the text proposed by the Bulgarian Presidency in no way reflects a balanced compromise, whether on substance or from the perspective of the many legitimate concerns that have been raised. Instead, it represents a major threat to the freedoms of European citizens and businesses and promises to severely harm Europe’s openness, competitiveness, innovation, science, research and
Education. […]With so many legal uncertainties and collateral damages still present, this legislation is currently destined to become nightmare when it will have to be transposed into national legislation and face the test of its legality in terms of the Charter of Fundamental Rights and the Bern Convention. We hence strongly encourage you to adopt a decision-making process that is evidence based, focussed on producing copyright rules that are fit for purpose and on avoiding unintended, damaging side effects.
The signatories of the letter include national organisations from across 25 EU Member States, representing human and digital rights groups, media freedom orgs, publishers, journalists, libraries, scientific and research institutions, educational institutions including universities, creator representatives, consumers, software developers, start-ups, technology businesses, and internet service providers. They repeat and amplify the voices raised previously to express their deep concerns about the artificial sense of urgency created by the Bulgarian Presidency.
(This week, two other important open letters were published: 169 professors of law and academics urge to oppose the new press publishers right. 55 European organizations do the same: “Enough is enough”).
