EU policy-making in the field of copyright. Problems of the consultation process and the stakeholders’ lobbying

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to discuss the EU policy making in the field of copyright. This is an important issue in view of recent EU initiatives to adapt copyright law to the needs of the digital single market as well as of challenges of exploitation of immaterial goods in connection with the development of new technologies and controversies over the EU directives. The article focuses on the consultation process (conducted by the European Commission) and the stakeholders’ participation (including lobbies) in creation of the EU policy in a given field. It is discussed in relation to the legislative process of the following two, recently adopted directives: 2011/77/EU which extends the term of protection of certain related rights and 2012/28/EU which introduces certain permitted uses of orphan works. The first part refers to the question why some groups of interest are successful and some other fail (the analysis concerns factors resulting from group
actions and the character of a consultation process). Next, the article evaluates the Commission’s activity in the field of regulations of the consultation process and lobbying. The EU legislative process is discussed from the point of view of political sciences as it concerns the EU actions related to the consultation process and the participation of citizens in the legislative process.