In yesterday's meeting in Rome between the Minister of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism Dario Franceschini, the vice president of the Fep, Federation of European Publishers, Henrique Mota, the president of the Italian Publishers Association (IEA), Marco Polillo, and the president of the Gems group, Stefano Mauri, discussed copyright and the equalization of VAT on paper and book books.
Minister Franceschini said he was very satisfied with having found an excellent convergence of objectives between publishers and those that are the intentions in the cultural sphere of Italy's European presidency semester. Indeed, Franceschini found significant coincidences in the indications of the publishers: "in the letter I sent to the 27 European culture ministers, in view of the informal summit that will bring them all together on 24 September in Venaria, and in a second letter I sent them on the agenda of the summit, I have indicated among others precisely these themes – VAT on ebooks and paper books among others. So the positions are very close."
According to Marco Polillo, president of the IEA, Italy will be the mouthpiece of European demands. Among these are the two themes mentioned so far, the equalization between 22% VAT on ebooks and 4% on paper books above all. Furthermore, “another very important matter needs to be rearranged – recalls Polillo – which sees a tug of war between the «over the top», the large companies on the Internet, and the publishers».
Also in the words of Stefano Mauri, president of the Gems group, there are positive signals with respect to the position that Italy is assuming in European culture. “The minister seemed to me to be very sensitive to the issue of European primacy in culture, which still stands today: [...] 70 percent of quality publishing production worldwide is European. And this means that European interests can be a little different from the others, for example compared to the American reality”.
In conclusion, Minister Franceschini once again drew attention to the importance of copyright, which must continue - or start again - to guarantee the daily bread of authors, whose works are increasingly immersed in the digital sea in which everything seems to be everyone. For free.
