Brussels, BELGIUM — More than 145 universities, libraries, human rights, media freedom, technology businesses and digital rights groups sent an open letter Thursday. The letter asked EU Member States not to grant a mandate to the Bulgarian Council Presidency to negotiate with the Parliament on the copyright reform before addressing the damages that proposal would cause to the European Digital Single Market.
The letter, ahead of a 27 April meeting of EU Member State Ambassadors, says the Copyright Directive ignores advice from many different stakeholder groups. It goes on to note it would be a major threat to the freedoms of European citizens and businesses and would severely harm Europe’s openness, competitiveness, innovation, science, research and education.
The following statement can be attributed to Maud Sacquet, Senior Policy Manager:
“Rather than a balanced compromise, the current copyright proposal mainly reflects rightholders’ demands. It is impossible to implement and to transpose into national law. CCIA and over 140 organisations call on the Bulgarian Presidency to listen to their concerns and to continue discussions at a technical level to reach a workable position.”