EU Parliament: Guard culture, defend authors and resist the far right
We’re back from intense few days in Strasbourg, for the first session of the European Parliament’s 10th term. Like many other stakeholders, we met with MEPs and their assistants, some of whom we knew and who had supported authors’ rights in the previous term, as well as new MEPs whom we identified as possible new allies.
The ‘Flower bar’ (named after its colourful flower carpet) was buzzing with lobbyists trying to get MEPs’ assistants to pay attention to their specific issues. If they were lucky enough to speak to the MEPs themselves, they could be found in the more exclusive MEP bar. Journalists gathered in the Press bar and the media centre around the Hemicycle, and the visitor groups were escorted around in the building.
Culture is a topic that often receives too little attention among other policy areas. As a part of the portfolios and titles of national government ministers, culture is often grouped together with a wide area of policies such as sport, tourism, education, youth and national heritage, etc. Media may be part of their portfolio, or it may be grouped with information, communication, technology or digital policy, which is the responsibility of another minister.
For the SAA, culture and media are about recognising European creators, protecting their rights, strengthening their status as authors and making sure that they receive fair pay for their creative work, and remuneration for the exploitation of their works. We want authors to be able to make a living from their craft and continue to invest in new creative and innovative projects. We want to see a society where authors have their freedom of artistic expression and where cultural diversity can flourish.
Today, 85% of VOD viewing time is generated by only 3 services (Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+) and 9 out of 10 of the most widespread TV and VOD groups in Europe are US-based (EAO). This is not a level playing field for the availability and discoverability of Europe's diverse works, nor for the remuneration of authors.
However, this view of culture and cultural diversity is not shared by all. In fact, some use culture as a weapon against diversity and pluralism.
The new far-right political group ‘Patriots for Europe’ state how they are “ready to protect their people against any and all potential threats coming from the… cultural spheres’. The views of the even more far-right group, ‘Europe of Sovereign Nations’ and its Nazi-sympathising members, speak of an even more distorted extremist view of what culture is.
In the past terms, MEPs have backed up European creators by defending their copyright and status (read about their achievements 2019-2024). For example, in the Audiovisual Media Services Directive, MEPs made the promotion of European creation a priority, not least as a way of ensuring cultural diversity in the audiovisual sector. The European Media Freedom Act was another important initiative to protect pluralism.
In this 10th legislative term, we will have to carefully defend our cultural values, policies and legislation. Culture must be protected not only in practical terms but also as a concept and narrative about our European Union founding values of human rights, pluralism and solidarity (EU Treaty, Art 2). Let’s not forget that culture is mentioned in the preamble of the Treaty in relation to solidarity and in the Charter linked to diversity. The UN HR Declaration states that the enjoyment of the arts is a human right, as is the protection of the authors’ artistic works (Art 27).
Defending and protecting an inclusive and rights-based definition of culture should be a top priority for this Parliamentary term. If not, we may see its meaning rewritten and the concept hijacked by far right and extremist MEPs (form PfE, ESN, NI), who now make up at least 12% of the Parliament, and 20% of the members of the Culture Committee. This will be important not only in the work of the committees, but also in a future possible Intergroup on Culture.
Authors’ rights is the SAA’s key objective, opposing AI models that are being trained at the expense of authors’ livelihoods is our top priority, and equality, diversity and fairness in the audiovisual sector is a part of all our work. Read more in our new brochure and priority areas for new MEPs.
Public Affairs and Communication Director, SAA