Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/1999-12-16-Speech-4-110"
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"en.19991216.3.4-110"2
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"Mr President, please believe that I know what I am talking about because my father owned a book shop. My parents had a small book shop in a small town. There was not much to do there, but anyway. I can assure you that, without book price fixing, we could not have survived, which is why, Commissioner, your statements can only be felt as a disappointment and your presentation has made it clear that the question of cross-border book price fixing threatens to turn into an endless saga.
It is a truism to say that books are not goods like butter, eggs and cheese and that they are a cultural asset which cannot be dealt with under competition law like butter, eggs and cheese. That does not alter the fact that there is printed matter which does not meet this claim. However, the exception should not be seen here as the rule, nor should we take as a yardstick the fact that there are books which earn a great deal of money. Best-sellers are, indeed, the exception to the rule.
It is not right to see books merely as an economic asset. Luckily, your predecessor, who represented this view, was clearly unable to make it stick. So we still have reason to hope, but the danger has clearly not been averted, far from it. Hence our urgent request, to which we expect a clear answer, Commissioner, that books should be seen as cultural products. Obviously, national book price fixing systems are, thankfully, not disputed; consequently, the possibility must be granted for regulations such as those which now exist, for single cross-border language areas. What has been preserved over a hundred years in the German-speaking area between Austria, Germany and Switzerland, what has permitted a large diversity of titles and has ensured that competition is not excluded and that there is a comprehensive supply of large and small bookshops in both town and country, should not be sacrificed to the unbridled and extortionate pressure of the market leaders, not in book shops, not in the mail order business and not in e-commerce.
As a cultural asset, books have the right to equal status in the various channels, including sales channels, to the reader. The French regulation which, in addition to the national price fixing system, also includes regulations on imports, exports and re-imports, offers a way forward which is compatible with the EU and which has proven its worth in practice, which is why, Commissioner, the European Parliament is waiting, across the group divide as you will no doubt have seen, for the go-ahead for a similar legal or contractual regulation for Germany and Austria, in order to bring this endless saga to a happy ending at last. Or do you prefer to expose yourself to the reproach that the Commission is a committee of philistines? You should spare yourself this sad reputation. You have to decide between culture and commerce. Please opt for culture."@en1
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