Welcoming the European Parliament
Next week, the MEPs will elect the President of the European Parliament and its vice-Presidents and decide on their 20 Committees. Four of them are of special interest for the SAA: Culture and Education, Legal Affairs, Internal Market and Consumer Protection and Industry, Research and Energy.
The previous Parliament concluded three very important EU Directives for filmmakers in Europe on audiovisual media services, online broadcasting and retransmissions and copyright in the digital single market. A big thank you to the outgoing MEPs and their assistants who worked to ensure authors get fair remuneration for the exploitation of their works: Ms Pervenche Berès, Mr José Blanco Lopez, Mr Jean-Marie Cavada, Ms Silvia Costa, Mr Giorgos Grammatikakis, Ms Mary Honeyball, Mr Marc Joulaud, Ms Virginie Rozière, Ms Helga Trüpel and Mr Tadeusz Zwiefka.
The SAA is looking forward to working with the new MEPs who are interested in the area of culture in general and the audiovisual sector in particular, creators’ rights, cultural diversity and the support to and promotion of European works. Together with other organisations, we will propose to set up a European Creators’ Intergroup. This would be an excellent way for MEPs across the political spectrum to come together to talk about the issues of creators and find new solutions. A European Creators’ Intergroup could become instrumental in generating ways to improve creators’ position within the cultural and creative sectors by sharing research and good practices.
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Message from 500 filmmakers to EU citizens
Ahead of the European elections, more than 500 filmmakers signed a manifesto, unveiled at the Cannes Film Festival, urging Europeans to vote. It had an impact: 51% of Europeans voted. This is 8 points above the turnout of 2014 and the highest turnout since 1994.
Their message was:
"This Union was built on the principles of open borders, free circulation, fraternity, solidarity, values that are today under attack on all fronts, including from within Europe itself... But this Union is also one of culture, a truly ambitious purpose for a continent whose innovation and creation have always shone bright... And a free and democratic Europe is a Europe of creativity, freedom of thought and expression. As we are facing extremism and backwards tendencies, once again spreading like a plague, it is our duty to stand up for these values."
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Romanian EU Presidency Copyright Conference
Cécile Despringre, SAA’s Executive Director, and Stéphanie Martin, SAA’s new Legal Advisor, attended the Romanian EU Presidency conference on the new challenges regarding Copyright in the Digital Single Market on 19 and 20 June in Bucharest. The conference was a special opportunity for the Commission and stakeholders to discuss the impact and implementation of the newly adopted Copyright Directive. The panel discussions on the new rules for online content sharing service providers and on the fair remuneration and transparency for authors and performers were of particular interest. Cécile Despringre made some live tweets during the conference.
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Visiting our member in Lithuania
On 13 June, Cécile Despringre visited the SAA's new member organisation LATGA in Vilnius to better understand the situation of audiovisual authors’ rights in Lithuania. The visit was the opportunity to discuss how to strengthen the collective management of audiovisual authors’ rights and the implementation of the new copyright directives.
Cécile Despringre also met with Ms Regina Jaskelevičienė, Vice Minister for Culture to discuss the preparation of the implementation of the new copyright directives in Lithuania. Article 18 of the Copyright Directive in the Digital Single Market obliges Member States to assess the situation of their authors and to develop appropriate mechanisms to ensure they receive proportionate remuneration for the exploitation of their works. This is the perfect vehicle to fix audiovisual authors’ problems in Lithuania.
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Free online course on copyright and creative industries
A new MOOC (massive open online course) from CISAC and FutureLearn is now open for enrolment. It is a unique opportunity to learn about copyright, authors rights, royalties and the creative industries. Cécile Despringre, SAA’s Executive Director, is one of the contributors to the curriculum, bringing the perspective of filmmakers’ remuneration and collective management of their rights. The four-week course begins on 22 July. Read more here.
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Changes in the team
After the departure of Mélanie Amilhat, we welcome Stéphanie Martin, the new SAA Legal Advisor, who joined the team on 3 June. Our intern, Melissa Colussi, will finish her traineeship on 12 July. Good luck to her and Mélanie for their future adventures!
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