Secretary General's July Digest, 2024
July was an unusual busy month due to the setting up of the new European Parliament following the June elections. The newly elected MEPs held their constitutive plenary session last week in Strasbourg. Together with my colleague Annica, we went to Strasbourg and had a few appointments with re-elected and new MEPs.
It wasn't easy to secure meetings as the MEPs have been already approached by countless lobbyists while at the same time trying to settle into their new role and workplace. However, it was a great opportunity to present our issues and try to convince them to join us in our mission to advance audiovisual authors' rights in Europe. Here you can see our new brochure that we brought with us as a part of our introduction. It provides a great background to the issues we work on and what MEPs can do to help. Of course, it is also a challenge as more than half (54%) of all the MEPs are new and one third of the Parliament is conservative and extremist (if we cumulate 78 ECR - European Conservatives and Reformists Group, 84 PfE - the new Patriots for Europe Group – now the third largest group in the EP, 25 ESN - the new Europe of Sovereign Nations group and 33 non-affiliated). Read Annica's interesting blog where she reflects on why it is more important than ever to 'guard culture, defend authors and resist the far right'.
On the positive side, the former Chair of the Committee on Culture and Education, Sabine Verheyen (EPP/Germany) has now been elected as Vice-President of the European Parliament. The new chair of the CULT committee is Nela Riehl (Greens/Germany), who won the most votes against her opponent from the new far-right group Patriots for Europe. After the summer we will continue to meet with MEPs and hope to establish new allies to work with over the next 5 years!
Last week, Ursula von der Leyen was re-elected President of the European Commission by the Parliament. During the summer, the EU countries will propose her their candidates for Commissioner. This is a process we will be following closely as we would like to see a Commissioner in charge of both culture and audiovisual.
In September we will return to Strasbourg for the announcement of the 5 finalist films of the LUX Audience Award 2025. With our close partners FERA and FSE, we are planning to organise a dinner with MEPs, the finalist film teams and our members to celebrate the diversity and beauty of European cinema. While in Strasbourg we will also take the opportunity to hold an SAA Board of Directors’ meeting and discuss the SAA's next multi-annual strategic plan.
Finally, let me share some good news for the development of collective management for audiovisual authors in the Balkan region. After many years of negotiations, VAPIK, the CMO for audiovisual authors in Kosovo eventually signed an agreement with the country's cable operators under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture. This historic milestone finally ensures the consolidation of the implementation of the Law on Copyright and Related Rights, and thus the payment of royalties to audiovisual authors. This is the result of countless efforts by our Slovenian member AIPA and the support of the SAA and a demonstration of the value of CMOs in supporting other CMOs so that authors can benefit from equal rights across Europe.
In August, I will be spending some precious time with my family, and when I am back, I look forward to continuing to work with the new Parliament, our members, partners, and last but not least, with you. Thank you for supporting our work and I hope we find opportunities to be in touch during the autumn!
I will be back on 20 August and my colleague Annica will be in the office in the meantime.
I usually give 3 reading tips, but as it is the holiday season, I will instead encourage you - like me - to watch a good film or read a novel and relax!
Summer greetings 🏖