The Working Party on Intellectual Property (IP), part of the Council of the EU representing member state governments, prepares legislation on copyright, trademarks and patents and presents the conclusions in the EU Competitiveness Council. The Working Party met in Brussels on 16-17 January 2017 to discuss inter alia EU implementation of the Marrakesh Treaty for persons with print disabilities.

Ahead of this important meeting EIFL, IFLA and EBLIDA, representing the international and European library communities, issued a joint statement entitled ‘Don’t Go Back on the Deal. No Barriers to Realizing the Promise of the Marrakesh Treaty’. The statement urges EU governments not to go back on the deal negotiated in Marrakesh that aims to end the book famine, the fact that less than 7% of published works are made available globally in accessible formats, such as Braille, audio and large print, and digital formats.

In particular the library statement is critical of a proposal by Germany to introduce remuneration rights for secondary rightholders, such as publishers, as well as other attempts to impose burdensome rules on ‘authorized entities’, such as libraries, that risk going back on the promise of Marrakesh.

Download the statement in Word format.

Read about EIFL’s work advocating for the Marrakesh Treaty.