Copyright Directive: EuroISPA urges MEPs to reject JURI Committee’s negotiation mandate  

Brussels, 20 June 2018 – Today, the European Parliament’s Legal Affairs Committee (JURI) adopted its report on the Copyright Directive reform. EuroISPA is deeply concerned by the adoption of Articles 11, on press publishers’ rights, and 13, on upload filters, which would hurt the European internet economy and European users alike. Therefore, we call on the European Parliament to reject the JURI Committee’s mandate to enter into trilogue negotiations with the Council during the next Plenary session, to further work towards a proportionate and targeted approach.

Innocenzo Genna, Chair of EuroISPA’s Innovation and Growth Committee, commented: “We regret today’s Committee vote. Article 13, in its current form, would damage the competitiveness of the vast majority of the Internet ecosystem, mostly comprised of small and medium size providers”. Article 13 would require Internet platforms to install unaffordable upload filters to assess the legality of copyright-protected content. This will lead to over-blocking and censorship of lawful content, thus endangering European users’ fundamental freedoms.

EuroISPA also regrets that the majority of the Legal Affairs Committee did not take into account the plea of hundreds of NGOs, academics, businesses, and internet pioneers such as Tim Berners-Lee. These MEPs also ignored tens of thousands of messages sent over the past two weeks by EU citizens via email and social media.

Therefore, we call on the European Parliament to contest the Legal Affairs’ Committee’s decision to enter into trilogue negotiations during the next Plenary session, which will take place at the beginning of July. We urge all MEPs to support Copyright rules which are proportionate and targeted, to support the development of the European Internet industry and respect users’ fundamental freedoms.