Coherent EU policy for cultural and creative industries
The European Parliament adopted by 540 votes to 77, with 85 abstentions, a resolution on a coherent EU policy for cultural and creative industries.
Parliament stressed that cultural and creative industries (CCIs) in Europe provide more than 12 million full-time jobs, which amounts to 7.5 % of the EU’s work force, creating approximately EUR 509 billion in value added to GDP. CCIs in the EU employ 2.5 times more people than automotive manufacturers and five times more than the chemical industry.
Parliament called on the Commission to develop a comprehensive, coherent and long-term industrial policy framework for the creative and cultural sector and provide framework conditions for fostering innovation as well as sufficient financing.
Framework conditions and fostering innovation: Parliament called on the Commission to introduce an umbrella scheme that bridges the gap between R&D, European creative content production and technological innovation in the media field. It believed that such an umbrella scheme would foster the production of creative and competitive EU services, and commercial and employment opportunities, and enhance access to market for SMEs and start-ups. It called on the Commission to establish an appropriate legal framework, including copyright, for the value chain in the digital age, which takes into account the specificities of the sector.
It also called the Commission and Member States to promote cross-sectoral cooperation by establishing ‘learning labs’, and creative clusters and networks in order to foster interaction between micro-enterprises, SMEs and large enterprises and between non-profit organisations and commercial companies.
Copyright: Parliament called urged the Commission, in view of the ongoing copyright reform, to create balanced legal solutions that are adapted to the digital age, including in partnership with industry and consumer groups, which will support and meet the interests of SMEs, very small enterprises and micro-enterprises, creators, right holders, right users, freelancers and consumers alike in order to make it clear that liability exemptions can only apply to genuinely neutral and passive online service providers and not to services that play an active role in distributing, promoting and monetising content at the expense of creators.
Recalling the fact that piracy and counterfeiting remain a serious concern for the innovation sector, Parliament underlined the need to monitor and strengthen the application of existing enforcement rules across the EU, through the introduction of tougher sanctions.
It called on the Commission to propose effective measures to fight online piracy, in particular to ensure that online services which host content apply effective means in order to remove unlicensed content from their services and to take action to prevent this content, once removed, from reappearing.
It called for the introduction of tougher sanctions and the promotion of a system of guarantees on traceability as a deterrent for counterfeiters as well as increasing the damages and compensation awarded to right holders.
Preservation of European cultural policy: Parliament insisted on the need to keep cultural and audiovisual services outside the scope of the negotiating mandate for general free trade agreements, while pointing out that cultural and creative works have a dual and intrinsic value.
Digitisation of the cultural and creative industries: Parliament emphasised the opportunities that new ICTs such as big data, cloud computing, the Internet of things offer the economy and society, especially when integrated with sectors such as CCIs. It stressed, however that, in order for CCIs to fully seize the potential for growth and jobs of new technologies, the completion of the Digital Single Market must be a priority. Digitisation and media convergence should create new opportunities for funding, and access, distribution and promotion of European works.
Working conditions in the cultural and creative sector: Parliament pointed out that the atypical employment (part-time and fixed-duration contracts, temporary work and economically dependent self-employment) of cultural and creative workers, specifically in the media and culture sector, is commonplace. It also underlined the need to remove obstacles to mobility of workers in this sector.
Parliament called on the Member States to develop or implement a legal and institutional framework for creative artistic activity through the adoption or application of a number of coherent and comprehensive measures with respect to contracts, means of collective representation, social security, sickness insurance, direct and indirect taxation and compliance with European rules, in order to improve the mobility of artists across the EU.
The resolution pointed to the existing average EU gender pay gap (16.1 % in 2014) and pension gap (40.2 %), and stressed that women face the same barriers in the cultural and creative industries as in other economic sectors, in particular as regards gender pay and pension gaps, access to finance, stereotypes, training and lifelong learning.
Education, skills, and training: Parliament highlighted the potential of CCIs regarding youth employment and reindustrialization. It called on the Commission and Member States to include the CCIs in the Youth Employment Initiative and to provide funds to facilitate careers, entrepreneurship and training in this sector. It also called on the Commission and Member States to secure the preservation of European savoir-faire and to safeguard and promote the craft trades linked to the CCS, and place a stronger focus on vocational training and a highly skilled workforce in order to attract talent. Parliament also called for measures to encourage carriers in this sector.
Parliament also called for the creation of a ‘European award for creative and cultural industries’ designed along the same lines as the ‘Franco-German Prize for Creative and Cultural Industries’.
It encouraged the Member States to undertake initiatives such as the ‘cultural bonus’ launched by the Italian Government and endowed with EUR 500, made available to all 18-year-olds legally resident in Italy, and to be spent only on ‘culturally enriching activities’ such as museums, galleries, archaeological and heritage sites, books and films.
Financing: Parliament noted the success of tax relief schemes for the cultural and creative sector existing in certain Member States. It encouraged all Member States, therefore, to introduce such schemes.
It called on the Commission to work on mainstreaming EU support for cultural and creative industries, including funding. It noted that the mid-term review of the MFF and the implementation reports of EU programmes should be regarded as two interconnected parts of the same process. Particularly in the case of Creative Europe, Horizon 2020 and the Structural Funds (ERDF and ESF), the role and impact of CCIs should be specifically evaluated and further promoted. Members stressed that this process should provide a solid and coherent basis for the revision of the MFF and the future EU programme's architecture post 2020.
In the meantime, Members called on the Commission to fully exploit potential synergies existing between EU policies, so as to effectively use the funding available under EU programmes – such as Horizon 2020, the Connecting Europe Facility, Erasmus +, EaSI, Creative Europe and COSME – and the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIFs) to support more projects in the field of CCIs.
Parliament stressed the need to increase the budget of Creative Europe and the Guarantee Facility in order to effectively support European cultural and creative expressions.
Parliament called on the Commission to establish the CCIs as a horizontal priority within EU funding schemes and programmes, particularly in Horizon 2020, EaSI and the ESIFs.
Lastly, Parliament called for the promotion of ‘intellectual property asset protocols’ facilitating the valuation of intellectual property rights (IPRs) and to adopt the necessary mechanisms in order to increase the bankability of IPRs and the recognition of their full value as assets.