HC Deb 10 December 1997 vol 302 cc596-7W
Mr. Bermingham

To ask the President of the Board of Trade (1) what plans she has to ratify the treaties adopted at the WIPO conference in Geneva in December 1996 intended to enable British music companies to make their recordings available to consumers world-wide via digital networks; [19959]

(2) what plans she has to raise the issue of copyright protection of recordings on digital networks within the European Union; [19960]

(3) what action she plans to take to encourage other member states of the European Union to ratify the WIPO treaties; [19961]

(4) what plans she has to discuss the European Copyright Directive at meetings of the Council of Ministers; [19962]

(5) what plans she has to ratify the treaties adopted at WIPO Conference Geneva in December 1996. [19963]

Mr. Ian McCartney

The Government fully appreciates the fundamental significance of the new treaties to the UK music industry, which was one of the principal reasons why officials from my Department were at the forefront in securing the successful conclusion of the treaties last December. It follows therefore that we wish to ensure that the UK is in a position to ratify the treaties at the earliest possible time. We also intend to take every opportunity during the forthcoming UK Presidency of the EU Council of Ministers to impress the urgency of the task upon our European partners. In doing so, we will stress the particular relevance of the treaties to the protection of sound recordings in digital networks.

A number of changes to UK law are however needed to enable us to ratify the treaties. Several of these are in areas which the European Commission's planned Directive on copyright and related rights is expected to cover. We will need, therefore, to know the likely form of future EC law in these areas with reasonable certainty before we can reach conclusions on legislation to implement the treaties in the UK, in order to avoid inconsistencies between the two. We do not expect to be in such a position for some months at least, since the draft Directive has yet to be submitted to the Council of Ministers. Although we would hope to be able to proceed with treaty implementing legislation as soon as the situation regarding EC law becomes clear, it will not be possible for legal and other reasons for the UK to ratify the treaties until the Community as a whole and all of its Member States are in a position to do so.

Once the draft Directive is submitted, which we anticipate will be early in 1998, discussions on it will start at Council Working Group level, and we hope to make as much progress as possible during our Presidency. However, before the Council can reach a common position on the draft Directive, the European Parliament will have to give its opinion and we believe that this is unlikely to occur during the UK Presidency.