Answer given by Vice-President Ansip on behalf of the Commission
27.6.2017
The question of the Honourable Member refers to a statement about quality of press content and media pluralism in the Commission's synopsis report on the public consultation on the role of publishers in the copyright value chain.
This statement relates to the contribution to the public consultation submitted by the European Consumer Organisation BEUC[1], which expressed overall concern as to the possible introduction of a publisher right but also mentioned the stimulation of content production as a possible argument in favour of such introduction. All replies to the public consultation are available online in the Commission's website[2].
When replying to question 14 of the public consultation which related to the impact of a publisher's right on consumers, around 94% of individual consumers and 81% of the organisations who responded indicated a potential negative impact.
Public consultations are for the Commission an essential tool to inform its policy-making. However, the Commission adopts a cautious approach to quantitative data, as responses to consultations are generally not statistically representatives of a target population.