PRESS STATEMENT- on solutions proposed by EU Media Futures Forum

ENPA, the European Newspaper Publishers’ Association, noted with interest the solutions proposed today by the EU Media Futures Forum, established by European Commission Vice-President Neelie Kroes and chaired by Christian Van Thillo, CEO of de Persgroep (Belgium/Netherlands). ENPA President Ivar Rusdal, said: “Newspaper publishers across Europe call on the EU institutions and national governments to support the Forum’s call for lower VAT rates on digital press. We also ask competent authorities to respond to the Forum’s call for vigilance as regards any potential access barriers in the digital environment, particularly activities such as news aggregation which could threaten competition and innovation.”

In light of the discussions in the Forum, ENPA highlights some additional points. ENPA President, Ivar Rusdal, stated: “In ENPA’s view, a robust EU copyright framework is an essential element to ensure that publishers can continue to invest in providing a wide range of professional content to consumers, in both print and digital formats. In addition, effective enforcement of EU competition rules is urgently needed to ensure that the digital activities of public service broadcasters do not distort the market for independent press.” The EU Media Futures Forum was established in December 2011 and is composed of 28 individuals from newspaper and news media publishing to the audio-visual sector, technology companies and social networks. The aim of the Forum is to analyse the future of the media in Europe against the background of the current economic crisis and rapid technological change.

Link to Forum Executive Summary:

http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/media_taskforce/doc/pluralism/forum/exec_sum.pdf

For further information contact:

Francine Cunningham, ENPA Executive Director
Email: francine.cunningham@enpa.be
Tel: +32 (0)2 551 01 90