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| KAT-LEAK: exclusive image of Brussels cabinet meeting |
Leaks of internal EU Commission
documents have seemingly become unavoidable events in-between one official release and
another from this EU institution.
The
latest leak, published by Politico, is that of an internal
note to the attention of Commissioner Bieńkowska's Head of Cabinet concerning the forthcoming (?) review of the
enforcement framework, including the Enforcement
Directive.
As
readers will remember, the Commission itself announced that this is part of
the agenda when it unveiled its Digital
Single Market Strategy (DSMS) two
years ago (May 2015). Despite the timeframe indicated in the 2015 DSMS, a more
thorough review of the enforcement framework is (or, rather, was?) expected in the first half of
2017, including the release of proposals to review existing EU legislation.
So
far nothing has happened on this front.
The reason - as this latest leak
appears to suggest - is that there is no agreement within the Commission itself
as to what direction should be taken. In other words, as the document admits, the reform process is currently in a "deadlock".
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| D(r)eadlock Kat |
In
addition, there might have been also a change of heart in some of the key players,
possibly even including Commission's Vice-President Ansip.
According to the
document, it appears presumable that Commissioner Ansip has gone from
strongest supporter to most vocal opponent of a review of the Enforcement
Directive. The reason would be that at the beginning it appeared that
rightholders would somewhat lose in the reform of the copyright acquis, so that a stronger
enforcement would be needed as a "trade-off" [yes, the document
employs this term]. Apparently this has not been the case. Hence, "such trade-off is no longer considered necessary given the final scope of
the copyright proposals which do not materially cut into right holders
positions."
The
document then reviews a number of possible options on the table.
An
important (and unsurprising) aspect is the focus on the role intermediaries.
According to the note, any proposals to harmonise intermediary liability in the
context of a review of the Enforcement Directive and require intermediaries to
take more pro-active measures "is a very far reaching call which does not
fit into [the Enforcement Directive] systematically and it is at least doubtful
if such an initiative would be in line with the E-Commerce
Directive and the announcements made by the Commission in the 2016 Communication
on platforms to respect the
liability regime for platforms."
To
be continued ...
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