Brussels, 11 July 2017

Dear Ms. Koniordou,

Our Greek members have alerted us of two provisions contained in the draft bill implementing the Collective Rights Management Directive currently under consideration in the Greek Parliament: one extends the exception for teaching purposes to scientific research and to digital uses without any remuneration, and the other introduces an exception related to the public lending right, exempting certain categories of libraries from payment and delaying the obligation for the others.

Should these provisions be adopted, the system of licensing agreements efficiently managed by OSDEL would be seriously undermined; furthermore, writers and publishers would not be remunerated for the public lending of books until the date of issuance of the presidential decree. I wanted therefore to express the deep concern of the Federation of European Publishers for these proposals, which go against the international best practices in this field with regard to authors’ and publishers’ right to fair remuneration.

We are convinced that authors and publishers should be remunerated for the use of their works for educational purposes; otherwise the creation of works will be threatened, to the detriment of society in general. This is the message we are conveying at EU level as a draft Directive is currently discussed that regulates the exception for teaching purposes.

As we underlined when we had the pleasure to meet you in Brussels, the publishing sector in Europe is a success story that only needs a balanced legislative framework to maintain its dynamism and sustainability. We hope that this notion will inspire you to reconsider the proposal and opt for a solution that respects the necessary balance and avoids an unjustified erosion of the rights of authors and publishers.

Yours sincerely,

Henrique Mota
President
Federation of European Publishers