Gaps in the harmonisation of copyrights or neighbouring rights and unfairness in the remuneration of artists

Question for written answer  E-001885/2022
to the Council
Rule 138
Peter Pollák (PPE), Sabine Verheyen (PPE), Tomasz Frankowski (PPE), Stanislav Polčák (PPE)

While the EU has already adopted several legal acts harmonising the use of subject matter protected by copyright or neighbouring rights, differences persist between Member States, and this has an impact on the remuneration of artists. This problem in particular affects audio-visual and multimedia production professionals and the management of their collective rights. In many Central European Member States, such as Slovakia, Hungary or Austria, creative film professions, such as camera operators, editors and sound engineers, are not considered to have any copyright or neighbouring rights, or need to provide proof of their artistic contribution on an ad hoc basis. This situation has an impact on issues of equality of rights, protection of intellectual property and revenue from the exercise of rights in individual Member States, in particular in co-productions, such as a series about Empress Maria Theresa. Focus on safeguards for the creative input of individual artistic professions is therefore needed.

• 1.Does the Council consider this divergent practice in the Member States to be acceptable in the single internal market? Does it serve the interest of protecting intellectual property?
• 2.What steps does it intend to take to investigate the differences in protection in Member States with a view to providing better guarantees for different artistic professions in terms of remuneration?