With each passing day, this European election campaign brings its share of bad news for the cultural sector, many of whose historic allies will not be in the new assembly. In recent days, we’ve learned that Ivan Garcia del Blanco won’t be standing for re-election, while Geoffroy Didier and Emmanuel Maurel are in virtually ineligible positions on their respective lists. The creative sector will have to hope that Laurence Farreng is elected again, and forge new bonds of trust among the next elected officials. It will undoubtedly be useful to recognize the action of Virginie Joron, who will be elected on the Rassemblement National list, is a member of the EP’s two most important committees, and has already defended the cultural exception. The creative sector has many dossiers open in Brussels: the continuation of geo-blocking, setting the conditions for AI developers’ transparency obligation, the fight against sports event piracy, and the obligation for platforms to fund works are just a few examples. On top of this, it’s quite possible that the 2019 Copyright Directive will be re-opened during the next term, as well as – or so the rumor goes lately – the 2004 Directive on the enforcement of intellectual property rights. French authors organisations Scam and Sacd have both expressed their wishes…
