Strong support from the European Parliament for the further development of Europeana, Europe's digital library, archive and museum, has been welcomed by European Commission Vice-President for the Digital Agenda Neelie Kroes. The European Parliament's Resolution adopted today has joined the European Commission in asking EU Member States to step up their efforts to make their cultural heritage available through the site that already gives direct access to 7 million digitised books, maps, photographs, film clips, paintings and musical extracts.

European Commission President José Manuel Barroso has announced that the European Commission will entrust three personalities - Maurice Lévy (CEO of Publicis), Elisabeth Niggemann (Head of the German National Library) and Jacques De Decker (writer) - to come up with recommendations on how best to speed up the digitisation, online accessibility and preservation of cultural works across Europe. This Reflection Group will examine the various ongoing initiatives involving both public and private partners (notably the Google Books project) and copyright issues to find ways to boost the digitisation efforts of the complete collections held by libraries, museums and archives in Europe. These recommendations will ultimately help Europeana, Europe's digital library, reach a new dimension: today the Europeana portal (www.europeana.eu) already offers access to over 7 million digitised books, maps, photographs, film clips, paintings and musical extracts, but this is only a small part of all the works held by Europe's cultural institutions. The establishment of the Reflection Group is part of the Commission's broader strategy to help the cultural sector make the transition towards the digital age. The Group, who will report to Commission Vice President for the Digital Agenda Neelie Kroes and Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth Androulla Vassiliou, has been requested to submit its conclusions before the end of the year.

The EU Competitiveness Council meets in Brussels on Thursday 03 and Friday 04 December under the chairmanship of Ms. Ewa Bjorling, Minister for Trade and Ms. Maud Olofsson , Minister for Enterprise and Energy. The European Commission will be represented by Vice President Gunter Verheugen, responsible for Enterprise and Industry and Meglena Kuneva Commissioner for Consumer Protection. On 3 rd December, the European Commission will be represented by Commissioner Poto čnik during the Research part of the Council.

The Education, Youth and Culture Council will meet in Brussels on 27 November 2009 to discuss, inter alia, key issues related to Europe's Information Society. The European Commission will present its analysis of the impact of the Google Books Settlement on Europe from the angle of copyright, cultural diversity and competition. EU ministers will address the wider challenges for digitising books and other cultural content, and making this material available through Europe's digital library Europeana. The ministers will also discuss media literacy in the digital environment. The European Commission will be represented on these issues by Viviane Reding, Commissioner for Information Society and Media. On the issues related to the Education and Culture portfolio, see MEMO/09/521.

This Memo provides journalists with an overview, from the Commission's point of view, of the issues that will be discussed at the "Education, Youth Affairs and Culture" Council on 26-27 November 2009 in Brussels. The Commission will be represented by Maroš Šefčovič, the Commissioner responsible for Education, Training, Culture and Youth.

A study published today says that European interactive websites like video sharing sites and blogs are growing, generating revenue for both owners and contributors. Compared with the US, which hosts the most commonly used websites for content created by users (blogs, texts, videos, music, games and virtual objects), Europe has more contributors. For example, almost 4 in 5 Italian internet users read blogs compared to 60% in the US, 41% of Spanish users write blogs but only 26% in the US, almost 60% of Czech internet users upload photos and 48% of Polish internet users subscribe to RSS feeds, all ahead of the US (see annex). To help the emergence of European Flickrs and youtubes that turn this large European creativity into growth and jobs, the Commission’s report highlights the need for new and updated EU rules building a Single Market for content that can be made and shared online by anyone.

The European Commission today published a reflection paper on the challenge of creating a European Digital Single Market for creative content like books, music, films or video games. According to Commission studies, a truly Single Market without borders for Creative Online Content could allow retail revenues of the creative content sector to quadruple if clear and consumer-friendly measures are taken by industry and public authorities (see IP/07/95). The digital availability of content thus presents great opportunities for Europe, but also a number of challenges. First of all, regulatory and territorial obstacles still stand in the way of digital distribution of cultural products and services and can impede creativity and innovation. In addition, illegal downloads on a large scale can jeopardize the development of an economically viable Single Market for digital content; there needs to be much more encouragement for legal cross-border offers. Against this background, the reflection paper – drafted jointly by the services of Commissioners Reding and McCreevy – outlines current challenges for three groups of stakeholders – rightholders, consumers and commercial users – and invites everybody interested to participate in a broad debate about the possible European responses to them. Comments can be sent by 5 January 2010.

The European Commission today adopted a Communication on Copyright in the Knowledge Economy aiming to tackle the important cultural and legal challenges of mass-scale digitisation and dissemination of books, in particular of European library collections. The Communication was jointly drawn up by Commissioners Charlie McCreevy and Viviane Reding. Digital libraries such as Europeana ( http//www.europeana.eu ) will provide researchers and consumers across Europe with new ways to gain access to knowledge. For this, however, the EU will need to find a solution for orphan works, whose uncertain copyright status means they often cannot be digitised. Improving the distribution and availability of works for persons with disabilities, particularly the visually impaired, is another cornerstone of the Communication.

The availability and take-up of broadband, and the increasing possibility to access creative content and services everywhere and anytime, provide challenging new opportunities. For consumers, it means new ways to access, and even to influence, creative content available on worldwide networks such as the internet, both from home and using mobile devices. For companies, it means the possibility to offer new services and content and to develop new markets. With the emergence of new devices, networks and services, these challenges have to be addressed by content and network operators, right holders, consumers, governments and independent regulators. Successful responses will be key to growth, jobs and innovation in Europe.

The European Commission today launched a public consultation of professionals from the EU's audiovisual industry on how to best seize the opportunities and address the challenges of the 'digital revolution' in the EU film sector. Digital cinema can make distribution of films cheaper and more flexible, enabling more European films to travel. 'Going digital' however requires high investments. One third of European cinemas could be threatened with closure due to the high cost of digital equipment – unless new business models and viable public support schemes are developed now. Feedback from cinema and audiovisual professionals as well as national film agencies and other interested parties during the 2 month consultation opened by the Commission today will feed into a Communication early next year setting out the Commission's policy on digital cinema.

Today, the European Commission announced €5 million of funding for 2009 to strengthen cultural and commercial relations between Europe's film industry and film-makers of third countries. The EU funding will enable European film makers, animators and other audiovisual professionals to learn new skills, and promote the industry, by cooperating with professionals outside Europe, and vice-versa.

Viviane Reding, Commissioner for Information Society and Media, and Charlie McCreevy, Commissioner for the Internal Market and Services, today made a joint statement setting out the important cultural and economic stakes of book digitisation in Europe. To face the daunting task of digitising Europe's books, of which there are tens of millions in Europe's national libraries alone, the two Commissioners stressed the need for fully respecting copyright rules to ensure fair remuneration for authors, but also welcomed public-private partnerships as a means to boost digitisation of books. They highlighted the need to adapt Europe's still very fragmented copyright legislation to the digital age, in particular with regard to orphan and out-of-print works. The statement of the two Commissioners comes ahead of a series of workshops and meetings between the Commission, cultural institutions, right holders, IT companies and consumer organisations, which start today with an information hearing on the US class action settlement on Google Book Search. Under this settlement, agreed between Google, authors and publishers in the United States (which still requires validation by a US court), authors could receive 63% of the online revenue generated by Google with digitised books. As of today, no equivalent solution is available in the EU. This week's hearings and meetings at the Commission will help develop a European response to the challenges of books digitisation. Both Commissioners believe that the challenge for EU policymakers is to ensure a regulatory framework which paves the way for a rapid roll-out of services, similar to those made possible in the United Sates by the recent settlement, to European consumers and to the European library and research communities.

4.6 million digitised books, maps, photographs, film clips and newspapers can now be accessed by internet users on Europeana, Europe's multilingual digital library (www.europeana.eu). The collection of Europeana has more than doubled since it was launched in November 2008 (IP/08/1747). Today the European Commission, in a policy document declared as its target to bring the number of digitised objects to 10 million by 2010. The Commission also opened a public debate on the future challenges for book digitisation in Europe: the potential of the public and private sector to team up and the need to reform Europe's too fragmented copyright framework.
Other Press Packs

The way we use media is changing, the volume of information enormous, demanding more of us than being able to read, write or use a computer. The European Commission today warned that Europeans young and old could miss out on the benefits of today's high-tech information society unless more is done to make them 'media literate' enough to access, analyse and evaluate images, sounds and texts and use traditional and new media to communicate and create media content. The Commission said EU countries and the media industry need to increase awareness of the many media messages people encounter, be they advertisements, movies or online content.

The European Commission has adopted a new Communication on state aid for the funding of public service broadcasters. The Communication provides a clear framework for the development of public broadcasting services and enhances legal certainty for investment by public and private media alike. The new Communication replaces the Commission’s 2001 Broadcasting Communication. Information Society and Media Commissioner Viviane Reding said: "One of the Commission's main objectives is to preserve a vibrant media landscape in the online environment, notably by ensuring that online offers of public broadcasters do not distort competition to the detriment of offers from online services and print media."

A report released today by the Commission confirms that the EU's rules on TV advertising need close monitoring. In 2007 and 2008, the Commission took legal action and initiated infringement procedures against Spain and Italy for not applying EU rules that limit TV advertising to the 12-minute maximum per hour and not integrating these rules into their national laws. This is the final report on the EU's Television without Frontiers Directive, which since 1989 has ensured the free circulation of broadcasting services, as well as guaranteed an appropriate level of consumer protection and promotion of European television programmes and films. Its EU policy successor, the Audiovisual Media Services Directive, is expected to be fully implemented across the EU by December 2009.

Films and television programmes made in Europe continue to attract European viewers. According to an independent study carried out on behalf of the European Commission and published today, European works represent almost three quarters of European channels' peak viewing time. The presence of European works in the new media – such as video on demand – is encouraging, but its compliance with the new European audiovisual rules needs to be monitored closely. Those rules, which are intended to ensure that European works are broadcast, were supplemented in 2007 by specific new‑media measures which all the Member States must apply by December 2009 (IP/08/2032).

The case submission for the 4th European eGovernment Awards, organised by the European Commission, closes on 10 June 2009, 16:00 CET. Early submission is strongly recommended. All public administrations (national, regional, local, etc.) from EU Member States, EFTA and candidate countries that deliver eGovernment services and solutions can apply. Applications must be for cases currently in operation and supported by a public sector actor. You can submit your case and experience in 4 different categories (eGovernment supporting the Single Market; eGovernment empowering citizens; eGovernment empowering businesses; eGovernment enabling administrative efficiency and effectiveness). A separate public prize will be awarded based on the online votes cast by members of ePractice.eu (membership open to all). The selected finalists will be invited to exhibit at the 5th Ministerial eGovernment Conference 2009 on 19-20 November in Malmö, Sweden. There the finalists will present their works and participate in the Awards ceremony.

European Commissioner for Competition Neelie Kroes has welcomed progress made towards pan-European music licensing following discussions in the Online Commerce Roundtable. In particular, she welcomes confirmation by French collecting society SACEM that it is willing, in principle, to entrust other collecting societies with pan-European licensing of its repertoire and to act as non-exclusive rights manager for publishers and other collecting societies. She also welcomes confirmation by multinational record company EMI that it is ready to entrust rights managers to offer its repertoire for the whole European Economic Area (EEA) and notes Apple's statements that if iTunes was readily able to license rights on a multi-territorial basis from publishers and collecting societies, it would consider making its content available to all European consumers, including those in EU countries where iTunes is currently not available. Commissioner Neelie Kroes set up the Roundtable in September 2008 in order to examine ways to reduce barriers to online commerce so that consumers can take better advantage of the opportunities offered by the Internet (see IP/08/1338 and SPEECH/08/437). The report on the Roundtable, just published on the Europa website, outlines the conclusions of the meeting that Commissioner Kroes hosted on 17 September 2008, as well as of a 16 December 2008 follow-up meeting which focused on the distribution of online music.

Le Jury officiel du 62e Festival de Cannes, présidé par Isabelle Huppert, a dévoilé son Palmarès lors de la Cérémonie de clôture du 24 mai.