Dispute between EU states brings negotiations to a halt  22/01/2019 by Tom Hirche

Representatives of the Member States in the European Council have not yet managed to reach a compromise. The trilogue negotiations are therefore continuing to drag on indefinitely. That gives cause for hope.

Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Finland, Slovenia, Italy, Poland, Sweden, Croatia, Luxembourg and Portugal. These eleven countries rejected the Romanian Presidency's compromise proposal and thus refused it the mandate for trilogue negotiations with the EU Commission and the EU Parliament. Originally, the intention was to conclude the joint negotiations last Monday.

There are two reasons why this did not happen: firstly, the requirements for platforms with user-generated content (Article 13), and secondly, the disastrous ancillary copyright for press publishers (Article 11).

However, this does not mean that all these countries reject the two regulations in principle. Germany, for example, continues to support the EU-wide introduction of a new publishing right despite experience with the already existing national regulation. By vetoing the proposal, Germany is merely attempting to make changes to the details that would ultimately not diminish the collateral damage caused by such a right.

However, there is still reason to be excited. Given the variety of different opinions, it raises the question of whether a compromise with which all countries agree can be reached in time for the European elections in May 2019.

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