COVID-19: EU response
25/02: Sassoli on the pandemic: “There can be no return to how things were before” – European Parliament
David Sassoli called on EU leaders to continue the common approach to Covid-19 vaccines in a speech to the European Council.
25/02: Statement by President von der Leyen at the joint press conference with President Michel, following the videoconference of the members of the European Council – Council of the EU
22/02: Economic policy priorities for a post-pandemic recovery – European Parliament
A high-profile panel warned of the economic difficulties stemming from the pandemic, whilst noting that this crisis could offer the chance to rebuild EU economies.
16/02: Remarks by Executive Vice-President Dombrovskis at the informal ECOFIN press conference – European Commission
Copyright in the Digital Single Market Directive
17/02: TDM exceptions and trust in AI - Kluwer Copyright Blog
Will the text and data mining (TDM) exceptions, introduced in arts 3 and 4 of the EU Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market (DSM Directive) and currently being implemented by the EU Member States, serve its purpose of promoting the development of AI technologies or will they remain (another) set of meaningless black letter rules?
16/02: Five considerations for the transposition and application of Article 17 of the DSM Directive - IPKat
Nearly two years have passed since the adoption of the Directive on copyright in the Digital Single Market 2019/790 (DSM Directive). As it was probably bound to happen, the discussion of its content – notably of its Article 17 – is no less heated now than in 2016-2019, that is the period between the release of the Commission’s original Proposal and the adoption of this piece of EU copyright legislation.
Czech Republic
24/02: State aid: Commission approves €115 million Czech rent compensation scheme to support businesses affected by the coronavirus outbreak – European Commission
The European Commission approved an approximately €115 million (CZK 3 billion) Czech scheme to support retail businesses and service companies which are using rented premises and whose activities were limited or not allowed to be carried out in the context of the coronavirus outbreak.
Estonia
26/02: Commission proposes to provide €230 million to Estonia under SURE – European Commission
The European Commission has today presented a proposal to the Council for a decision to grant €230 million in financial support to Estonia under the SURE instrument.
Poland
22/02: Poland Proposes Advertising Revenues Levy – Film New Europe
The Polish government has proposed a levy on advertising revenues aimed mainly at multinationals operating in Poland that pay only a small fraction of their revenues in the form of corporate income tax. The tax will not apply to smaller, local or regional media.
Recent studies:
European Parliament - Cultural and creative sectors in post COVID-19 Europe - February 2021
Events:
1 – 5 March: Berlinale’s European Film Market
4 March: ITRE Committee on the Digital Services Act
8 – 11 March: European Parliament Plenary
10 March: Virtual stakeholder meeting on the new Creative Europe MEDIA
11 March: European Audiovisual Observatory Advisory Board meeting
12 March: Informal video conference of Home Affairs Ministers
15 March: Eurogroup
15 -16 March: CULT Meeting
17 – 18 March: IMCO Meeting
