• treaty provisions;
• primary legislation adopted by the Council and the Commission acting under treaty provisions;
• secondary legislation adopted by the institutions, normally the Commission, to implement primary legislation.

• Regulation: a law, which is binding and directly applicable in all member states without any implementing national legislation being necessary. Both the Council and Commission can adopt regulations, used in many areas such as the regulation of transport and commercial policy.

• Directive: a law binding on Member States as regards the results to be achieved, but needing national legislation to put the law into place, appropriate to each Member States own legislation & within a given timetable.

  NB: most of the Single market legislation is in the form of directives.

• Decision: an act binding entirely on those to whom it is addressed, with no national law required.

• Recommendation: no binding effect - can be adopted by either the European council or the Commission.

The Official Journal is the record of all Regulations, Directives, Recommendations and other official documents produced by the Commission. An edition of this is available in every language of the EU and can be accessed on the Web for a limited period.

Of particular importance to the book trade is the Article 128 enacted as part of the so-called ‘Maastricht’ Treaty, which requires all EU legislation to take account, where appropriate, of the cultural dimensions of any intended regulation. this Article can therefore be quoted whenever it is felt that the Commission is proposing legislation that may well prove to be adverse to books and the book trade and it can now be expected that the European Parliament will step in, quoting this Article, whenever MEPs are unhappy about aspects of what is being proposed. As such, therefore, the Cultural Committee of the Parliament is of great importance.

In practice EU Competition policy is riddled with anomalies: vertical restraints are allowed, indeed encouraged in the gasoline and brewing industries, because they are seen to be ‘good for the effective distribution’ of those commodities, and fixed prices are imposed, for example, on all EU fish, so as to ensure 'stability in the market place’. State aid (in the form of EC subsidies) is still a major feature of the agriculture sector, which accounts for a significant part of the total EC budget.

• EBF tries to follow the considerable amount of discussion, legislation and opinion on the subject and it has a large dossier on all aspects of competition policy as it affects the book trade, including copies of national fixed price agreements or laws.

The Commission has been successful in banning fixed prices for Dutch/Flemish books, when they cross the border between Flanders and the Netherlands. It has also sought to outlaw fixed prices between Britain and Ireland, and although it finally lost its case in the European Court of Justice, the fall of domestic fixed price systems in both countries means that there is no price-fixing arrangement at the moment. Currently DGIV is attempting to dismantle the Dutch fixed price law, because it claims that it restricts competition - i.e. prevents market entry by newcomers. It is also seeking to annul the agreement between Austrian and German booksellers and publishers, but has recently come up against strong opposition from both the Council of Culture Ministers and the European Parliament, who voted in favour of a strongly worded Resolution in favour of Retail Price Maintenance for books in their December 1998 session. Most recently it has admitted that there may be a special case to be made out for bookselling, although this view has not been made clear cut and is not in writing.

• EBF carries out investigations into all aspects of the debate and lobbies EU institutions whenever and wherever appropriate. It has tried to provide help to national trade associations whenever this is asked for.

Surprisingly there is no legislation that appears to support the concept of fair competition in the European commercial market. This is in contrast to the United states of America where, in response to the rampant market of the last part of the 19C and the early part of this century, a succession of Acts was brought in under the general heading of the Sherman Act. Of interest to the book trade is the Robinson-Patman Act which attempts to restrict the amount of margin offered by suppliers to big and small outlets. This ensures, for example, that the American independent bookseller is buying books from publisher at 40%, compared with the chain store at, say 46%. At the beginning of 1999 however a white paper on Commerce has highlighted the real possibility of unfair competition between large and small retailers and suggests that the Commission may well wish to intercede on this at some stage, although no legislation is planned as yet.

• EBF believes that such legislation ought to be introduced into Europe as soon as possible and before major retailing power drives independent bookselling out of business, as it threatens to do in certain countries. It will be lobbying the Enterprise Directorate of the Commission, that was responsible for the White paper, to put something in place.

Working parties have produced lengthy reports on how bureaucratic controls can be reduced or removed, to the particular benefit of small businesses. It is to be hoped that those countries who will be joining the EU in the next few years will enjoy the full benefit of this activity.

• EBF is collecting all the relevant documentation on the subject which it can share with members.

No legislation is yet in place but their is a good deal of pressure to arrive at a Statute for a ‘European Company’ which would have the benefit of being able to trade anywhere in the EU. An important element on the proposals has been the idea of worker participation - strongly opposed by certain of the EU members.

• EBF is monitoring developments

In the most part books move across borders within the EU without any problem, except one of cost - which is still unacceptably high. One significant cost factor is the cost of money transfers. Ostensibly with the arrival of the Euro these costs will disappear, but in practice banks are still reserving the right to charge (often with significant sums) when cash passes from a bank account in one State to a bank account or a person in another State.

• EBF is monitoring developments and will be preparing to lobby about this matter at the appropriate time. It is especially aware that there are significant trade barriers between the EU and the pre-accession states.

This is the responsibility of DGI, the External Trade Directorate. Of use to booksellers exporting to other parts of the world is the market access database.

• EBF is usually represented at open meetings on Market Access and World Trade Organization policy making and it maintains contact with the Directorate. It is lobbying for more interest being taken in the book trade, especially as it affects the trade between EBF member states.

• EBF has produced a detailed document on the removal of taxation from books, which it has submitted to the Indirect Taxation Directorate, DGXXI. It now intends to conduct a campaign in favour of the Zero rate and to lobby whenever and wherever appropriate.

At present taxation rules in the business sector are entirely a matter for national administrations, but the Commission is anxious to try and harmonize the wildly differing rules, in order to avoid companies crossing borders in pursuit of favourable tax regimes. It is unclear where this will lead given the enormous interest in the subject taken by national Ministers of Finance.

• EBF can do little at present but to report on developments and to try and identify possible problem areas, such as that that has emerged in the German book trade recently, where the government wish to abolish tax relief on stockholding.

This is a vast and complex subject, which is the subject of an immense amount of documentation, but surprisingly little legislation or regulation. The main source of information at the Commission has been the Directorate responsible for Economic affairs, DGII, but several other directorates are also involved, especially that concerned with the commercial sector, DGXXIII, whose Committee for Commerce and Distribution has been prominent in highlighting the difficulties that retailers face in the changeover, such as the great inconvenience of the actual date - the first day of January, which is bad news for retailers. The most important issues for those Member states joining EMU will be the practical matters arising at the time when the new currency is physically introduced, at the end of the year 2001.

• EBF’s extensive paper on the euro is being continuously updated and a version of it is about to appear on the ebf-eu.org Web page. EBF is in close contact with the key sources of advice and is seeking representation on the Small Business Forum of the Euro, run by DGXXIII of the EC. Otherwise EBF will maintain its extensive contacts with organization concerned with the changeover to the Euro, represent bookselling views and provide adequate feedback to members.

The issue of human rights and data protection has emerged in conflicts about intellectual property between the EU and the United States. The latter authorities wish to see a complete liberalisation of databases. The EU has held its own so far, but the pressures are enormous to concede, given the rich prizes to be gained elsewhere in a transatlantic trade agreement. This will be the subject of much discussion at the next meeting of the World Trade Organization. Quite how data protection legislation limits the ability of enterprises to undertake database marketing is unclear.

• In all these matters, EBF takes a watching brief and will intervene if it feels that the interests of booksellers are being adversely affected. so fat this has not been the case.

There is increasing concern about the role of the small business in the European business community, given their hugely important role as employers. The Enterprise Directorate has responsibility for SMEs and its monthly newsletter Euro-Info, contains many items of interest to small business representatives. In particular the role of the so-called Euro-Info Centre is being expanded and it can be anticipated that many more of these will open, including in the CEECs, to offer local business advice, throughout Europe. The Directorate organises a wide variety of conferences, seminars and round tables to develop further SME interests. It has just published a White Paper on Commerce which touches on many issues that are relevant to booksellers.

• Because this is a complex area, with many possible leads, EBF hopes to produce an SME advisory paper before long, which will report on the detail of the White Paper.

In recognition of the difficulty of small businesses finding adequate funds in order to conduct their business successfully, the Commission is embarking on a number of initiatives, some of the most interesting of which have only just been announced. (See January 1999 EBF Newsletter). There appears to be a wide spread recognition now that enterprise at a small business level is badly under funded and needs new support (this is also referred to in the White paper, with some proposals about how the problem is best dealt with).

• EBF will be pursuing the relevant organizations for more information and will, hopefully, be able to act as a catalyst in improving the funding situation for booksellers.

• There has been an attempt to legislate for this area on a European wide basis, but differences in business practice seem to vary so widely, it is difficult to see how matters might be harmonized except at the most basic of levels. A Directive on the subject is currently held up because of differences between the Council of Finance Ministers.
• A watching brief is called for until such time as overall regulation appears to be interfering with national practice. For although this legislation is supposed to favour SME business it is a double edged weapon - with the small business being forced to shorten its payment period to suppliers to the detriment of its cash flow position.

For the book trade, as compared with many other trades, the obstacles to cross border trading to not appear to be too onerous, except for the cost factor. Until ways of simplifying and cheapening payment are devised (the euro?), cross-border transfer costs will always be a deterrent. However apart from the inevitable bureaucracy (form-filling), other obstacles appear to be insignificant within the EU. This will come as a surprise, perhaps, to those countries, especially from the CEECs, used to all kinds of obstructions.

• EBFs role is to collect any evidence of difficulty and make representation to the External trade directorate (DGI) or to the Internal Market Directorate (DGXV).

This is a 'buzzword' in the European Commission and appears in various EC Calls for Proposals. It means, quite simply, the practice of taking similar practices and measuring them against each other or against a commonly agreed standard. This may be fine for scientific and technical processes, but it is more difficult in areas that defy measurement to a common standard - e.g. levels of service in bookshops.

• We do not know enough about the technicalities of bench-marking to know whether it could be of real benefit to members. Any process that would allow the exchange of professional ideas and standards is bound to be a good idea.

   

This is a vast and complex field, with one Directorate, DGXIII, predominating, but it is far from being the only player on the field. There are a number of notable initiatives that may well be of interest, e.g.:-

Condrinet is the latest project, in a sequence of such large scale programmes devoted to aspects of electronic publishing and electronic commerce. The Commission publishes papers on the subject, usually available in CD-ROM format. In more general terms, the Directorate takes an interest in many aspects of the electronic distribution of information.

• EBF attempts to keep in touch with all the relevant contact points, and has been having a dialogue over the last years with the Unit responsible for Info2000. EBF also has an interest in the EDItEUR programme, which is the European book trade standards body, that has been partially funded by the EU.

IST & the Fifth Framework Programme

• EBF has attended the launch of this programme and is studying the programme in some detail, talking to a number of possible and potential partners in the field of bookselling technology who may be interested in mounting a project.

• EBF needs to correct this impression and in order to do so it has invited one of the key authors of DGXIII material to speak at the LIBF/EBF Conference in London, after which it is to be hoped that a better view of the booksellers role, especially in the field of electronic commerce (which overlaps with electronic publishing), where some booksellers at least have been pioneers.

The Telematics Programme has a special unit devoted to developing electronic systems for libraries and within this unit one person a specific brief to develop ideas for the CEECs. Much information is to be found on the special Web site, and this has hyper-text links to projects under way throughout the EU, including something called ECUP, the European Copyright Users Programme

• EBF has tried to keep in touch with this unit and also with the EBF equivalent in the library world, EBLIDA, with whom it has quite good relations even if policies may sometimes differ. There is almost certainly much more to be done in working up a closer relationship as the prospect of electronically equipped booksellers develop their relations with equally well-equipped librarians.

As part of a massive educational budget, resources are continuously allocated to the field of training for jobs. the Directorate responsible, DGXXII also produces a number of key documents on the subject as well as running a specialised training organization, CEDEFOP, based in Thessaloniki. Eastern Europe, however, is rather confusingly the responsibility of the European Training Foundation, also run by DGXXII, from its offices in Milan.

• EBF maintains contact with all these organizations and attempts to keep up with the rapidly expanding literature.

Currently with only one more year to run (it will be replaced by a new programme, still being devised), Leonardo has funded one or two projects in the book world, notably a project by publishers investigating training for multimedia production. Nothing has yet been done about the central concerns of the book world and in particular the need for improved training for booksellers. Leonardo is a complicated programme requiring very elaborate and carefully worked out Proposals, which have to adhere not only to the very strict requirements of that year’s programme (and these change yearly), but also to the national rules, applied differently in each member state. There are two strands to the overall programme that are of particular interest.

Projects undertaken under this head need to investigate current practice and produce ideas and schemes for how training measures can be improved, with a particular emphasis on the introduction of new technology.

• EBF applied for a benchmarking and distance learning project under this heading in 1998. Although it was turned down for a number of reasons, we were advised that the content was excellent. Given the widespread support for such a project, it is likely that a fresh submission will be made, but this may not be possible in 1999, since the Strand of Leonardo on Surveys and analyses is not active this year. On the other hand, it may be possible to submit a pilot project on bookseller training.

This is an extensively used Strand of Leonardo, which has resulted in 100s of thousands of young people being able to train ‘on the job’ in another part of the EU. Certain CEEC countries are included in this part of the programme. The idea is quite simple, but proof is required that real and positive results are obtained - it's not just an excuse for some extended holiday making!

• There has always been considerable interest in the idea of allowing staff to train by working in other countries bookshops, subject only to the problems of language competence. It is possible that a project could be put together in time for a submission by June this year. Such a project would describe how competent young booksellers could seek placements in other Member States book trades, probably on a reciprocal basis, where appropriate.

   

In 1998 was introduced the Culture 2000 Programme ‘to contribute to the promotion of a cultural area common to the European people, supporting cooperation between creative artists, cultural operators and the cultural institutions of the Member States in order to attain:

• the mutual knowledge of the cultural history of the European people, thus highlighting their common cultural heritage;
• creativity, the trans-national dissemination of culture and the movement of artists and their works;
• the promotion of cultural diversity and the development of cultural expression;
• the contribution of culture to socio-economic development;
• the promotion of cultural heritage;
• the spread of European cultures in non-member countries and dialogue with other cultures.’

This was the first time that an overall programme has been devised and after much argument it has now been ratified with a budget of at least 167 million euros.

• EBF contributed a paper in the formulation of this programme and took part in discussions leading to its present form. A point of principle that EBF adheres to however, is that however much positive intervention is planned for, the most important aspect of EU policy should be ‘non-intervention’ in matters of concern - such as the desire of Member States to have fixed prices for books or to maintain preferential or zero rates of taxation.

It has been a feature of cultural policy making recently that the Council of Culture ministers, who meet three or four times a year, can have a serious impact on the workings of the Commission and its Culture Directorate, DGX. This has led to a more friendly approach to the book trade and has prevented some adverse decision-making.

• EBF regards this activity as crucial, but it does depend on its members to intervene actively in influence national and EU policy making. a notable example of this was the action by the Dutch book trade to prompt a Culture Minister Conference on the importance of price fixing within linguistic areas - causing a major shift in emphasis.

For one more year before Culture 2000 starts, the ARIANE programme continues to run. this is the only EU programme concerned with books and reading. It has formidable support in the European Parliament, especially from that well-known MEP, Nana Mouskouri. The bulk of the expenditure has gone on supporting translations.

• EBF was successful, in 1997, in obtaining support for a project investigating the ways in which bookshops throughout Europe promote children’s books and reading. This has led to a considerable archive of material and the possibilities for exchanges of expertise. Indeed one country, Denmark, launched a highly successful Reading promotion based on information gathered by this project. It is hoped that this work will continue into the future, without necessarily needing support from the Commission - although it would be good if they took rather more interest in our activities. Regrettably DGX is notoriously difficult to work with.
• On the other hand the Council of Europe has shown considerable interest in the cultural role of bookshops and EBF maintains a good working relationship with the Council, with considerable input. This work is of especial interest to the CEECs where the Council does much of its work.

Strictly speaking, there are no censorship rules for books in the EU, and in the view of our members, nor should there be. However mass media control is a different matter and the EC has produced recommendations on the safer use of the Internet. It has also legislated against pornographic television

• EBF keeps a watching brief: not wanting to see the intervention of ‘busybody’ restriction on free access to the written word. Again the Council of Europe has shown considerable interest in this area and has consulted EBF about it.

A Directive has been issued on the limitation of the use of packaging materials and the recycling of those that do need to be used. This has not, however, become the law in all EU Member States.

• EBF has kept a watching brief on this matter, but has so far taken no active part in discussions or investigations. It is likely to become a matter of increasing importance and one about which a new generation of booksellers is likely to feel more strongly, so it is anticipated that action will be required in due course.

• EBF has tried to keep a careful watching brief on all aspects of commercial policy and in particular on the role played by EuroCommerce and the UAPME. This is not easy and because we are outside these bodies it is difficult to make our voice heard, even if we are increasing our efforts to do so. Communication with the Enterprise Directorate of the EC - DGXXIII is a continuous process.

EU legislation has recently be enacted that de-regulates the postal service structure of Europe and anticipates the privatisation of some national postal services or the introduction of competition. Whatever the merits of the case, national states of Europe must now legislate for a free market in postal, or dispatch services, provide that the so-called universal service is maintained -i.e the right of every EU citizen to receive mail regularly on their doorstep, however remote. Postal services come together in an organization called PostEurop, representing both the service provider and the users. An on-going debate about the costs of cross border mail is prompted by private entrepreneurs trying to undercut national services, and the feeling by users that inter-state costs of postage are currently too high. With the forthcoming liberalization of the postal services there has been considerable re-alignment of the operators, who have variously bought up package delivery services to strengthen their position.

• This is a complex and technical subject. EBF is a member of the PostEurop group and tries to keep abreast of developments - but we are a long way away from the ideal, which is that there should be some kind of pan-European preferential rate for book post or packages.

A number of Member States book trades are becoming increasingly concerned with the costs of distribution. Of course in Germany and Holland, the highly concentrated distribution network has solved many of the problems, but this is not true of much of the rest of Europe. In the UK a large and ambitious supply chain Study is underway and the French book trade have just held a large conference to address the issues there. Oddly enough, apart from some very generalised studies of the supply chain by DGXV, the Internal Market Directorate, there is no obvious place where work of this kind might be undertaken, given that it touches on the concerns of a number of Directorates: Transport, Enterprises, Economic, External Trade, internal Market etc.

• Although EBF has as yet done nothing in this area, the EDItEUR meeting has raised the subject at one of its recent meetings and it has become involved in the management of the European distribution Committee which meets at Frankfurt each year. There is little doubt that, with the advent of electronic commerce (see below), this subject will assume greater and greater importance.

Again with the exception of an interest in the problem of counterfeiting, surprisingly little attention has been given to a major problem for retailers. A recent survey by EBF suggests that about 1 ½ to 2% of turnover is lost from theft of stock. There are sophisticated solutions of electronic tagging to be had Europe-wide, but unfortunately technologies differ from trade to trade and from country to country, so nothing has yet been resolved. Many people believe that the future lies with tagging books at the time of manufacture (‘source-tagging’), but many hurdles have to be jumped before this is an acceptable solution.

• EBF has tried to keep abreast of developments and has encouraged discussion about the topic at its general meetings as well as ensuring that manufacturers of source tagging equipment are kept abreast of book trade developments.

DGXIII, the Information Society Directorate, is actively involved in encouraging entrepreneurs in the field and seems to be biased towards supporting research and development measures in this area.
DGXV, the Internal Market Directorate, is attempting to ensure that the right level of regulation is introduced - not to be too heavy handed but to ensure that unfair practices and dishonesty are outlawed. They have preferred the ‘self-regulatory’ route so far.
DGXXIII, the Enterprise and Commerce Directorate is interested in a variety of ways and runs a committee directly concerned with electronic commerce and the distribution sector.
DGXXIV, the Consumer Issues Directorate & the European Parliament have been showing great concern over the interests of the end user, who they see as being disadvantaged by this form of trading.

• EBF is attempting to follow these various policy developments, but much more work, and involvement by expert members is needed if the role of the bookseller in this crucial growth area is to be properly represented.

Free movement of people: in theory, it is possible for anyone to move about the EU without restriction, but there are still some barriers to a change of employment or domicile. An ambitious programme, “Citizens First” is attempting to spread correct information about the rights available and the Internal Market Directorate is trying to ensure that there are, indeed, no barriers. [But NB the Schengen agreement, which certain countries within the EU have signed and which does ensure completely free movement across borders - no passports for example].

For nearly two years now, the EU, in the form of several interested Directorates, the European Parliament and any number of powerful lobbyists, having been trying to come up with a new copyright law, that would be absolutely binding throughout Europe and would certainly apply to the book trade in all applicant countries. This new law, based on deliberations at WIPO (the World Intellectual Property Organization, an offshoot of the World Trade Organization), attempts to balance the rights of the copyright holder with that of the user, be it the individual reader or the institution, such as the library, wanting access to copyrighted material. The nub of the discussion is the issue of digitalisation - the encoding of text, illustrations and other material in digital form so that it can be transferred over electronically driven networks. For the problem is, without some form of control, once a work has been digitalized it effectively enters the public domain and the original copyright holder loses control. To counter this experts, especially in the USA, have developed the DOI, the ‘digital object identifier’. This enables the originator to ‘tag’ a work in such a way that it can be traced as it makes its way through the electronic maze. In theory, this means that the original author can be properly recompensed. However, the controversy surrounding the issue centres on the degree of absolute control the new regulations would give the copyright holder, usually a publisher, making access to the work more restricted and inevitably more expensive, in addition, the original author losing out by losing much of the control that they might have had before the digital age. So far the differences have not been resolved to the satisfaction of all parties, although a Directive has been agreed upon and is about to enter the Statute books.

• EBF has chosen to adopt a neutral position on this issue, assuming that, provided both authors and publishers can be satisfied, booksellers do not have a problem. A problem would arise however, if librarians had their own way, and access was liberalized to the point where any bookseller as supplier/library as customer relationship would breakdown.

This is a privacy issue in the electronic age. The EU has enacted a Directive that restricts the transfer of personnel data from one database to another - in fact the regulations are quite strict. This is, however, in conflict with the North American practice where so-called self-regulation is supposed to be sufficient. It clearly has not been and European have every cause for concern about the issue of ‘electronic snooping’.

• EBF has played no part in any discussions on this issue, but its members will be under increasing pressure to conform to new national legislation, which will ensure privacy. This is of particular interest to the acquisition of personal data by on-line booksellers, who will have to be extremely careful about how they handle such data - and where US techniques of ‘relational databasing’ are probably illegal in the EU.

As is probably well-known discussions are currently taking place with a number of countries about their applications to join the EU. The Commission and the Council of Ministers appear to be divided on the methods and policies, even the speed, with which this process should proceed, but it is thought that a crucial meeting of the Council of Ministers in Helsinki, towards the end of 1999 ought to resolve many of the issues. Although the front-ranking applicants have been selected (Czech Republic, Cyprus, Estonia. Hungary & Poland) other names appear to ebb and flow as well.

• EBF will follow the arguments carefully and will undertake to contact trade associations of applicant countries as and when appropriate about the issues likely to be coming up - for example VAT. This note attempts to survey the complex field of legislation that the applicants for membership to the EU will have to contemplate. The EBF offices will attempt to provide specific advice whenever it is possible to do so.

In the wake of the enlargement process significant funding, in the form of the so-called ‘Structural Funds’ will shift from the less well off areas of Western Europe towards the deprived regions of Eastern Europe where the need is seen to be greater. Some of this funding will, inevitably, be suitable for application to book trade support and it is to be hoped that, as the programmes are firmed up, it will be possible to make applications for these. Increasingly EU programmes that involve funding opportunities, have a specific clause indication that the inclusion of a CEEC partner would be welcome, and this particularly applies, for example, to the field of vocational training.

• EBF offices will be gathering information about Eastern Europe developments and will ensure that members are kept fully informed. Furthermore, whenever a programme, such as the Fifth Framework Research Programme specifically cites CEEC involvement EBF will ensure that the relevant Associate Members are brought into any discussions.

• EBF has, for some years worked closely with the Council and has been responsible for putting together an introductory guide to opening a bookhshop which the Council has since published.

This is a form of funding for the Polish, Hungarian and other Eastern European countries of which we have no direct experience. Such funding, or similar, is likely to increase as the countries in question get nearer the time when they are able to join the EU.

• EBF will be endeavouring to find out more about this possible form of funding for Associate Members.