On Monday November 28th MEP Max Andersson presented his Report for EU implementation of the Marrakesh Treaty on the Directive and Regulation in the European Parliament´s Legal Affairs Committee. This legislation will harmonize rules among EU states that will implement into EU and member states´ laws the Marrakesh Treaty for Visually-Impaired and other Print-Disabled Persons. His report is generally supportive of the European Commission proposal. He explained that his 8 amendments aim at clarifying and strengthening the implementation of mandatory exceptions to copyright for visually-impaired persons both inside the EU and for the exchange of works globally. These amendments refer to the exclusion of commercial availability and renumeration clauses, the restriction on use of technical protection measures and the duties of authorized entities to exchange works He stated that EU member states should not be allowed to impose any legal barriers such as renumeration and commercial availability clauses that would “go against the very objectives of the Marrakesh Treaty”. He added that “the reason the Marrakesh Treaty exists is precisely because the publishing industry has failed to provide works in accessible formats for visually-impaired persons”.
The European Commission was represented by the Head of the Copyright Unit of the Directorate General Connect, Maria Martín Prat, who described the legislation as establishing a “mandatory exception for print disabled and making possible the exchange of formatted works inside and outside the EU”. She also specified that this responded to a “very specific targeted case of complete market failure” and that “we do not want cumbersome conditions to make this exception more difficult”. She said that this legislation was a parallel and independent process from EU ratification of the Marrakesh Treaty that is awaiting approval by EU Member States in the Council who had objections with regards to the legal competence of ratifying the Treaty. With this regard she made reference to an imminent European Court of Justice opinion on the competence of the EU to ratify.
The Legal Affairs Committee will vote on the Andersson Report on January 31st, 2017 after considering amendments from the different political groups and the opinions of the Culture Committee and the Petitions Committee. The Directive and the Regulation are expected to be debated and voted upon in the European Parliament plenary session in April. The EBU and the WBU are taking an active part in this process.
Once the Parliament approves a final text, and in order for the legislation to become EU law, an agreement must be reached with EU Member States in “trialogue” discussions between the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission.
In should also be noted that during this process the publishing industry lobby has been active, both in Brussels and in some countries such as Germany, pushing its legal agenda upon policymakers to impose barriers on the objectives of the Marrakesh Treaty.
By David Hammerstein, EU advocate for the World Blind Union.