Secretary General's December Digest and holiday greetings

Last year at this time, the outgoing Parliament and Commissioners were hurrying to finalise their work before the elections. This time around, we are preparing for the new MEPs and Commissioners to take up their work and new initiatives. A year ago was also the time when the EU institutions reached a political agreement on the AI Act; today, the General-Purpose AI Code of Practice that will guide the implementation of this new legislation is being drafted.

Sure, there are many challenges ahead, but the vocal response from the cultural and creative sector globally has kept me hopeful.

There is a public conversation about global streaming platforms exploiting authors' works without paying royalties, and Big Tech training its generative AI models on creators’ works without their permission and remuneration. In early January, our internal SAA working group will meet to prepare our input to the AI Office's second draft of the General-Purpose AI Code of Practice, before I participate in the meeting of the AI Office’s WG1 on Copyright on 17 January.

Together with colleagues from other European creators' organisations, my colleague Annica and I met with MEP Hannes HEIDE to discuss the establishment of a Cultural Creators Friendship Group in the Parliament, to continue in the same spirit as the 'CCFG' during the previous term. Although many of our former supporters of creators' rights in the Parliament were not re-elected, H. HEIDE has been engaged since his first election in 2019 and he assured us that there are many new MEPs who are willing to support creators. 

This month, we had the pleasure of partnering with EFAD (European Film Agency Directors’ association) for a screening of ‘Semmelweis’ by Hungarian director Lajos Koltai and written by Balázs Maruszki. My team attended the screening while I congratulated our friends at AEPO-ARTIS on their 30th anniversary event. In the same week I had the chance to attend another EFAD screening of ‘Flow’ by Gints Zilbalodis, one of the finalists of the LUX Audience Award.  It was a beautiful animation film without any language that I highly recommend.

Finally, before I go on holiday, I am trying to catch up on all those tasks that tend to get put aside during busy periods. We all have those piles, don't we? 

Once again, I wish you happy holidays with your loved ones and a great start to the New Year! 

P.s. Keep on following our advent calendar on Instagram and Facebook, with special treats every day until Christmas Day.

Warm regards, ☃️

Cécile