Mr Prefect of the Region,
Ladies and gentlemen parliamentarians,
Dear Bruno Lion, President of SACEM,
Madam President of the Nuits de Fourvière, dear Myriam PICOT,
Dear Jean-Noël TRONC,
Mr Dominique DELORME, Director of Nuits de Fourvière,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Dear friends,
Thank you for your welcome. Thank you for your invitation.
And thank you for the theme chosen for the Days of Creation, for their 3e publishing[1]. Indeed, I believe that we cannot talk about Europe without talking about culture. Because it was through culture that everything began. It is through its culture that Europe became Europe.
It is through its creators, its artists, its authors, which, from Leonardo da Vinci to Kundera, from Mozart to Picasso, and from Stendhal to Zweig, have really experienced what it was like to be European; they who saw in the borders not impassable walls, but invitations to cross them, to dialogue, to exchange. It is through its cafes, and the poets and strollers who have made it their home, to write, reflect and debate. It is through all this that Europe, before being as we know it, before having institutions, was a community of destiny. A community of values, languages, customs, memories. A community that put the founding fathers on the road to union. This union, Laurent GAUDÉ traces it in a short text he has just published, a manifesto almost, entitled We, Europe He draws a history of our continent. With poetry, with passion, with ambition. According to him, we have abandoned the desire for utopia that once guided those who built Europe. He invites us to rediscover these crazy ideas, these crazy ideas without which Europe would not be Europe. ' Down with standardization, he writes We deserve bigger dreams. [… ] We don’t even speak, [… ] we are bursting with colors, accents, stories: [… ] we are so different peoples that our choice to unite [… ] is an unprecedented event in the light of history. » I don’t think it’s too proud to say that Europe has no equivalent.
Europe is this fierce, stubborn, impossible desire on paper to unite despite our diversity. To unite, precisely, for our diversity. To make it our wealth. Our chance. Yes: cultural diversity is an opportunity. It is this chance that allows our summer festivals to welcome artists from Florence, Mainz and Valencia, Cologne and Bologna, Bratislava and Ostrava, Birmingham and Rotterdam, Thessaloniki and Dubrovnik to France every year.
Cultural diversity is this opportunity that allows French artists, such as M, Vanessa PARADIS or Eddy DE PRETTO, to share the Nuits de Fourvière stage with Canadian artists, such as Mac DeMARCO; Senegalese, such as Youssou N'DOUR; English, such as Tears for Fears, Roger HODGSON or King Crimson; Americans, like Bon Iver or Mavis STAPLES; Tunisians, like Dhafer YOUSSEF; or New Zealanders like Aldous HARDING.
The cultural diversity is this chance that allows a festival like the Nuits de Fourvière to offer a rich and eclectic program for all audiences: from the equestrian theatre of BARTABAS to the dance of Natalia OSIPOVA; from Blaze electro to Idles punk rock.
We must protect and encourage this cultural diversity.” First, by changing our regulation.
That is the meaning of the copyright directive. It was adopted almost three months ago today.[2]. With this text, Europe reaffirms that creation is one of its pillars. And that there can be no creation without the recognition and fair remuneration of creators.
This is a huge victory – we can never repeat it enough. This is proof that Europe is the right level to stand up to the digital giants. The lonely Because when it comes to platforms, we will only be able to compete if we stand together. Perhaps they could try to circumvent the rule if we were to pass the law nationally in isolation. They could perhaps do without offering their services in one or two countries. They might give up a few tens of millions of users. But they can’t turn their backs on Europe. They cannot sell off 700 million potential users.
That is why this text had to be voted on by Europe, and not just by a State. With this vote we have sent a strong response to all those who no longer believe in Europe.
To all those who no longer believe in its ability to protect us, to defend our cultural model, that diversity which is so dear to us and which is the cement of Europe. To all those who have lost sight of the fact that union makes us stronger.
The European Union is our best protection: this vote reminded us. Despite intense and unprecedented pressure from the digital giants, despite massive social media disinformation campaigns, Europe has held its own.
Europe did not give in. Europe resisted. Together with all the Member States and peoples of Europe, we have been able to seize the historic opportunity before us: to bring copyright into the digital age.
To evolve unbalanced power relations. To defend our values and interests; our European companies and citizens; our artists and journalists; our authors and creators.
It is for them, with them, that we fought. We must now move quickly to transpose the directive. France intends to show the way with an ambitious text. I would like to thank all those of you who were with me, and all those involved in the profession who weighed in the debates in European bodies.
Your mobilization has been crucial: it has greatly contributed to the success of our approach. Now is the time to move forward. And to move quickly. We have circulated a first draft text on Articles 17, 18 and following for consultation on the relevant provisions. We need you back.
I am counting on all of you to do so as soon as possible. This directive, we have just transposed part of it through the bill to create a neighbouring right, adopted by Parliament at first reading.
We will transpose the rest into the revision of the 1986 law on audiovisual regulation. Again, the goal is to evolve our regulatory framework. To adapt it to new economic and technological realities. To transpose, in addition to the Copyright Directive, the Audiovisual Media Services Directive. Rebalancing the rules, between traditional, highly regulated players – such as TV channels and radios – and new digital players who are not, or too few. To integrate these new players into our virtuous model of financing creation, guaranteeing our French and European cultural sovereignty. It is normal that they are subject to the same rules as the others, and that they also finance French and European creation. It is the foundation of the cultural model to which we are all attached.
Adapting our regulatory framework, modernizing our means of action, also means relaunching the fight against piracy. And the “audiovisual” act will.
Today, our response to this scourge is no longer adequate. Since the creation of HADOPI, technologies have evolved and the destruction of value has accelerated.
Yesterday, we were looking at peer-to-peer downloading. Today, piracy is now 80% by stream or direct download.
We need to update. For too long, we have been too interested in those who download illegally, and not enough in those who broadcast illegally. But they are the ones who organize piracy; they are the ones who prosper plunder.
They are the ones we need to attack, and we need to attack them firmly. We will. We will target pirate sites directly. We will drain them of their advertising resources through the publication of “blacklists”. They will allow advertisers, payment services or search engines to know about illegal sites and to cease any relationship with them. We will prevent the resurgence of mirror sites through more effective court decisions.
This law will also contain an important part on the transformation of public broadcasting. I want it to become the reference in Europe.
I want a more digital public broadcaster; closer to the French; one that gives voice to youth, culture and the French Overseas; one that is at the forefront of the quality and reliability of its information; and one that contributes to France’s influence in the world.
I want a public broadcaster that fully supports creation: that embraces new ways of doing things; that experiments with new formats, new forms of storytelling; that introduces new talents.
Our public broadcasting must be the emblem of our cultural diversity.
Protecting diversity, changing regulation: we must also do so for the music industry. The quality and diversity of francophone musical creation has always been encouraged by the quota policy and the phonographic production tax credit.
We must continue on this path. The Ministry of Culture is on the side of the industry to study the effects of new uses on cultural diversity. In this regard, my teams have started a reflection with all the digital services gathered within the Union of Online Music Service Publishers, on how to measure cultural diversity in the era of playlists, algorithms and personalized recommendation. I thank them for their efforts to be transparent.
We will of course share these reflections with the entire music sector, as soon as we have sufficiently advanced. Instead of imagining in the urgency of hypothetical regulatory mechanisms, let us first take the time to identify the phenomenon and highlight the potential problems it raises. Instead of acting in haste, let us take time together to reflect. Let us take time to observe.
Observation: this will be one of the tasks entrusted to the future National Music Centre. It aims to bring together, within a common house, the tools of support, accompaniment, and observation of the musical sector.
If it is essential to better regulate, defend and protect diversity, it is not enough.
To enable it to grow, we must also encourage creation, accompany it and support it. We must not only change our regulation, but also our support systems. This is one of the ambitions of the National Music Centre project, among others.
It is an ambitious project, a project that brings people together. Proof of this is the almost unanimous adoption in the National Assembly of the bill to create it. Thanks to Pascal BOIS, who is here with us and who carried this text with all the commitment we know him.
This is a sign of broad support that transcends the divisions. I am pleased about that.
In parallel with the review of the legislative text, I called for the establishment of a steering committee, chaired by Catherine RUGGERI, to address all the issues that condition the effective and successful creation of the CNM.
And if we want it to be effective and successful, this creation will have to be achieved through membership and consultation.
This is why a dialogue and consultation body has also been set up, in order to associate you closely with this work.
Just as we will not build such a house without consultation, we will not achieve it without a financial effort commensurate with the stakes, and without a governance that makes it possible to reconcile efficiency, agility, and association of the world of music in all its diversity. This governance will be defined in the statutory decree being prepared.
As for funding, it will be clarified when the 2020 finance bill is introduced. I think it is essential that the budget be approached in a multi-year perspective, with a gradual increase in the burden of devices and supports. I’ve heard the concerns of some of you about continuity with the current funding system.
It is not desirable to rigidify the structure with a signposting policy, but it is clear that current NVC contributors should not see their support diminish.
More specifically on the issue of NVC reserves, it is essential that they be used within the current scope of the public establishment.
I therefore invite you to continue to feed the reflections conducted under the aegis of Catherine RUGGIERI. Among the missions of the future CNM is the development of the export sector.
The Ministry of Culture ensures this, through the Export Office, which encourages the presence and mobility of French artists around the world. We had the opportunity to reaffirm our ambition in this area a few weeks ago with the Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, Jean-Yves LE DRIAN, by convening the strategic committee on cultural and creative industries for export.
And you are working on it, Mr. Director-General, dear Jean-Noël, as part of the mission entrusted to you to support and federate cultural industries in their export development. I want to thank you for your commitment every moment. Changing our support mechanisms for the cultural and creative industries is the ambition of the President of the Republic.
He called them a few weeks ago[3], at the Elysée, to overcome the divisions.
In the face of digital technology, in the face of the great American champions and the Chinese over-funded model, we must show unity, collective commitment and more agility as well.
There is also a need for more means, particularly to support innovation.
That is why the President has announced an unprecedented effort in favour of access to finance for the cultural and creative industries. Through the creation of a 225 million euro investment fund managed by BPIfrance, dedicated to the startup and development of innovative companies. And by strengthening IFCIC’s interventions[4] in equity loans.
In this same ambition to promote innovation, the President of the Republic announced the organization of States General, which must lead to the creation of a committee of cultural and creative industries.
The aim is to encourage professionals in the cultural industries to take rapid, concrete and coordinated action to innovate.
Because it is through industrial innovation that we will be able to respond to new technological challenges.
In this context of great upheaval, we must keep in mind the purpose of these support devices. They must benefit creation. And there is no creation without creators: without authors; without composers; without performers. We have to put them back at the heart of our cultural policies. We have to ask ourselves what their place is in our society. They alert us to their precariousness. I hear their concerns, their lack of recognition. To answer them, I wanted to start a reflection on the author and the act of creation. I entrusted a prospective mission on the subject to Bruno RACINE.
It must enable us to find the most favourable framework for the development of creation and cultural diversity in the coming years. The upheaval in the value chain has significant effects on their remuneration, and their social and legal systems must take these developments into account. I wanted this reflection to be ambitious and realistic, concerted and open, multidisciplinary and prospective, at the service of all creators.
In this capacity, Bruno RACINE has set up a group of experts to provide a cross-section of perspectives on a creative economy whose diversity implies the sharing of analyses from different disciplines.
He’ll get back to me by the end of the year.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Dear friends,
Protect, and encourage. Defend, and accompany.
Regulate, and support. These are our keywords, to guarantee our cultural diversity. This diversity that is so dear to us, and that owes you so much, and to which we owe everything. Yes: Europe exists only because it is made of diversity.
Without diversity, we would have nothing to trade. If we were alike, if we had nothing different, we would have nothing to share with our neighbour, with the neighbouring country, with the world.
Let us cherish this diversity. It is who we are, and it is our future. We are the heirs, and I want us to be the guarantors.
Beyond conflicts and reconciliations, the peoples of Europe have never ceased to converse: in the language of their artists, the language of their thinkers, the language of creation.
Let us rebuild Europe through diversity. Through creation.
By culture.
[1] «Together to build our Europe of culture»
[2] March 26, 2019
[3] On 13 May last
[4] Institute for Financing Cinema and Cultural Industries