As the EU’s flagship investment programme InvestEU faces severe cuts, 26 organisations from the cultural and creative sector urge the EU to ensure cultural and creative businesses will benefit from appropriate level of support

Dear Commissioner Breton, Dear Commissioner Gentiloni,
  
We are writing regarding InvestEU 2021-2027   
  
As organisations from the cultural and creative sector, we are very concerned that the proposed severe cuts to the EU’s flagship investment programme could have a dramatic impact on the ability of Europe’s cultural and creative businesses to access much needed affordable debt and equity financing.   
  
With this letter, we urge the EU to ensure that the cultural and creative sector will benefit from an appropriate level of support via InvestEU. 

The European Parliament recently called for 2% of the Recovery and Resilience Facility to be earmarked for the cultural and creative sector. In the same vein, a set percentage of the future InvestEU fund should be earmarked for the sector. At the very least, the budget allocated for the sector should match the budget of the existing Cultural and Creative Sector Guarantee Facility (CCS GF). 
  
The CCS GF, which was launched in 2016 and is managed by the European Investment Fund, is a very successful instrument. It is in high demand from the sector and has a demonstrated leverage effect of public resources. Its initial budget has already been more than doubled (to €250m today). 
  
As the CCS GF is being moved out of Creative Europe, InvestEU is meant to continue facilitating access to finance for cultural and creative businesses, especially via its SME policy window. As part of the EU’s response to the Covid crisis, InvestEU is also supposed to “provide crucial support to companies in the recovery phase (…)”.

Cultural and creative businesses have important investment needs. It is now well established that culture and creativity are among Europe’s strongest assets, accounting for 4,4% of EU GDP and 12 million jobs. But these sectors remain structurally underfinanced. The financing gap for creative SMEs across Europe is estimated at between €8bn and €13bn by the European Commission.  
 
Access to affordable debt and equity financing was already needed before the pandemic, and it is even more essential today as the cultural and creative sector is one of the hardest hit by the Covid crisis.

For these reasons, we call on the EU to preserve this innovative way of generating investment for cultural and creative businesses by ensuring that a suitable budget is earmarked for our industry in the InvestEU fund. 

 Yours sincerely, 

The signatories:

AER – Association of European Radios 
Animation Europe 
Culture Action Europe
CEDC – European Coalitions for Cultural Diversity 
CEPI – European Audiovisual Production 
CEPIC – Centre of the Picture Industry 
EFA – European Festivals Association 
EGDF - European Games Developer Federation 
EIBF – European and International Booksellers Federation 
EMC – European Music Council 
EMEE – European Music Exporters Exchange  
Eurocinema 
ETC - European Theatre Convention
FEP – Federation of European Publishers 
FIAD – The International Federation of Film Distributors’ Associations 
FIAPF – International Federation of Film Producers’ Associations 
GESAC – European Grouping of Societies of Authors and Composers 
ICMP – The Global Voice of Music Publishing 
IFTA – Independent Film and Television Alliance
IVF – International Video Federation
IMPALA – The Independent Music Companies Association 
IMPF – The Independent Music Publishers International Forum  
LiveDMA – European network for live music venues, clubs & festivals 
Liveurope – The live music platform for new European talent 
Pearle* – Live Performance Europe 
UNIC – International Union of Cinemas

The European and International Booksellers’ Federation (EIBF) welcomes and celebrates yesterday’s positive vote and approval of several reports on the upcoming Digital Services Act (DSA) at the European Parliament’s plenary session.

Over the last months, we have closely monitored the reports on the DSA across several parliamentary committees covering different aspects of the file. In doing so, we have also held conversations and exchanged views with Members of European Parliament (MEPs) on the legislative file’s scope, content and its crucial relevance for the bookselling sector. 

Of particular relevance is MEP Alex Agius Saliba’s report from the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) committee, which calls for stricter rules and obligations for large online platforms with a gatekeeper role, increasing interoperability and stricter measures to prevent the sale of illegal and counterfeit goods on online marketplaces, among other important issues that concern booksellers.

These are priorities that we, at EIBF, have been vocal about and have advocated for many years. Yesterday’s adoption marks a stepping stone and positive step in the right direction to ensure further support for European SMEs and holding large corporations accountable in the EU. We consider this file as major cornerstone of the European Commission’s priority to make a “Europe fit for the digital age”, as well as a unique opportunity to level the digital playing field.   

We now await 2 December 2020 as a key date for the European Commission’s announcement of the Digital Services Act and the Digital Market Act, a parallel legislative package that will specifically target large digital gatekeepers to be defined by objective criteria, setting out a clear list of ‘do’s and don’ts’ in full compliance with international rules, as well as providing for a market investigation framework to address digital markets that may be prone to market failure and or to new gatekeepers arising.

Following the announcement at the end of this year, we will continue to monitor the developments of the package in the negotiations between the European Parliament and the European Council throughout 2021.

The SDG Book Club helps children learn about the Sustainable Development Goals 

SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities

Did you know that more than half of the world’s population lives in cities? Even though cities only make up 3% of the earth’s land, more than 3.5 billion people live in cities today, and that number is only growing.

Cities are also economic powerhouses, and contribute greatly to the world economy with large numbers of people working in offices, factories, construction and stores. Unfortunately, this also means that cities are largely responsible for alarmingly high levels of air pollution and carbon emissions from the production of goods and services and the consumption of energy for transportation, and electricity and heating of the many buildings and apartments. These levels put our environment in danger.

Find the SDG 11 reading list here

As more people make cities their homes, it is very important to focus on making cities safe, inclusive, and sustainable. Are there sidewalks in your city? Are there enough jobs and homes for everyone? Is it safe for your family to walk at night? Is the air in your city clean? Are the parks taken care of?

These are just some of the questions that SDG 11 tries to address. Since more than half of humanity is living in cities, it is essential to focus on improving conditions in cities in order to make them safe and welcoming for people around the world.

Our new reading list covers many of these topics and we hope the stories will inspire you to think about ways that you can help improve the community that you live in.

The SDG Book Club makes content available in the six official languages of the United Nations – please see our pages for recommendations in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish.

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The EIBF is one of the organisers of the SDG Book Club, working together with the UN, IPA, IFLA, IBBY and BCBF. Find out more. 

On Thursday, 5 November, we hosted a webinar to foster exchange of best practices between booksellers in the lead up to the end of the year sales 

Many countries around Europe, and the world, are experiencing a surge of Coronavirus infections, and many governments are again imposing various restrictions to try and contain the spread. Ireland has introduced one of the harshest measures, where all non-essential stores have been required to close. With Christmas season just around the corner, many booksellers are again facing uncertain future. 

To share experiences on how different booksellers are preparing for the holiday period, we hosted an EIBF webinar on this theme on Thursday, 5 November at 7 pm CET/6 pm GMT. We welcomed two speakers to the event, who discussed how they are gearing up to the end of the year sales, focusing on reviewing and ordering stock, planning promotional campaigns, and looking at Coronavirus restrictions in their countries and how to best implement them. 

Get to know our speakers 

     -     Julie Belgrado, Director at EIBF 

     -     Daniel Hagemann, head of the Bücherstube Fuhlsbüttel in Hamburg, Germany 

     -     Inara Belinkaja, owner and director of Janis Roze Bookstores in Riga, Latvia 

Missed the event? 

Listen to the recording below:

EIBF calls for a level playing field for booksellers, as Amazon enters the Nordics

On Wednesday, 28 October 2020, Amazon.se has officially opened for business in Sweden, marking the retail giant’s first entry to the Nordic market. The site is offering customers more than 150 million products across 30 categories, including books, consumer electronics, sports and outdoor, tools and toys, among others. The products are coming from thousands of European and local Swedish businesses.

The Swedish bookselling industry, especially within the digital sphere, faces a tough new competitor. However, the book market in Sweden today is largely digitalised already, as opposed to other countries where Amazon established operations much earlier. With these different circumstances, Amazon could find it more challenging to disrupt the book market in Sweden.

Maria Hamrefors, Chair of the Swedish Booksellers Association (Svenska Bokhandlareföreningen) and EIBF board member remains calm, yet also prudent with Amazon’s arrival. “There have been speculations about Amazon's launch in Sweden for more than ten years now and today it finally happened. Online retails is already the major sales channel in our market, with two local players offering a broad assortment of books at very competitive prices with speedy deliveries, so Amazon does not really bring anything new to the market from that perspective. From what I have seen today, the site is full of poorly translated content, high prices and strange recommendations. Day one of business here, and they are laughed at on social media, but we do, of course, need to take them seriously long term.”
 
While a new entry to the Nordics, the bookselling sector elsewhere has been facing competition from Amazon for a while now. With operations in 18 countries and 89 warehouses in Europe only, Amazon enjoys a dominant position in the online book market. However, initiatives from independent booksellers and booksellers associations are gaining tractions. Highlighting the unique experience one can find in a bookshop and the importance of such shops within their local communities, they remind readers of the essential part they play in providing a service that Amazon will never be able to provide. Among others, we have recently seen shop local campaigns, buy in-store initiatives, and buy early calls, as the holiday season approaches. 

All these initiatives need to be supported by political and legislative frameworks, as only in that way we can ensure a fair market where all players play by the same rules: from small- and medium-sized companies to big corporations. 

“Bookselling is a busy market, where all actors do not operate on an equal footing. While local businesses rely more and more on Amazon marketplaces to reach a wider audience, the terms and conditions imposed by the platform are considered by many as an abuse of dominant position. As a result, we have seen various probes against Amazon both in Europe and the United States in recent months. It will take strong political drive to bend the curve and to ensure that all players have equal opportunities,” said Fabian Paagman, EIBF’s co-President.

With the launch of Amazon.se and Christmas celebrations around the corner, the time is right for EIBF and its members to call on decisions makers to regulate the behaviour of dominant tech giants and to support fair competition. 

Photo: Christian Wiediger/Unsplash

As the end of the year approaches, we are highlighting initiatives calling for gift shopping that supports local businesses and communities 

Since the start of the Coronavirus, COVID-19, pandemic, retail landscape has changed dramatically. Customers are widely encouraged, and in some cases obliged due to government restrictions, to move their shopping online and make use of click and collect options. This drastically impacts local businesses, many of them small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), who rely on in-store customer visits. Throughout this year, we have seen many businesses adjusting to rapidly changing circumstances, with many having to develop their digital presence from scratch.

The book industry has not been spared by the impacts of the pandemic, and sales indicators show that local lockdowns have been devastating. However, customer demand for books has only increased and booksellers are optimistic for the upcoming holiday season. End of the year celebrations and Christmas sales are a strategic game for booksellers around the world: from carefully selecting and preparing stock to increasing the number of staff available to help deal with the rush of last minute customers. However, this year is turning that game on its head – not only are there usual technical preparations to consider, there’s also an added element of strict health and safety regulations to manage.

In the past few weeks, we have seen numerous campaigns calling for customers to do their Christmas shopping early, and support local businesses while doing so. This is important, as it could help smooth out the concentration of trade in the last few days and hours in the lead up to Christmas, and help mitigate the risks of supply chain disruptions. Additionally, shopping locally is crucial for sustainable development of local communities, and while doing so, customers will enable small- and medium-sized businesses to enter the last quarter on a more positive note.

Why is shopping early and locally important?

     •    Ensure customers will receive the titles they want without having to wait (in case of supply chain  disruptions and/or high demand)
     •    Help local businesses maintain steady cash flow 
     •    Support sustainable development of local communities  
     •    Help local businesses to maintain their services and grow where possible, especially in these challenging times 

Many SMEs have found themselves in precarious positions during this pandemic, especially as they can’t easily compete with online retails giants. In the book industry, the sector saw Amazon’s profits soar this year; in many cases to the detriment of brick and mortar shops which were forced to close by national governments. 

In the lead up to the Black Friday sales at the end of November, we took a look at Amazon’s global and European operations to highlight the company’s outreach and market dominance. Through these graphics and by voicing our support for ‘buy early, buy local’ initiatives, we hope customers will feel encouraged in supporting local booksellers, and wider local businesses. 

Sources are shared at the bottom of this page.

Initiatives from our members to support 

Australia: 
     •    Shop early, shop local campaign

Belgium:
     •    Shop early, shop local campaign by the association of French-speaking independent bookstores in Belgium (more here)

Denmark:
     •    Wider buy local campaign to be launched in early 2021 

France: 
     •    Wider campaign supporting buying online or through click and collect during the French lockdown
     •    A French Christmas campaign boycotting gift buying on Amazon #NoëlSansAmazon

Germany: 
     •    National campaign from the Börsenverein supporting bookshops during the holiday season    
     •    National campaign highlighting the importance of buying in-store, locally   
     •    Buy early postcard campaign from the book trade association Nordbuch Marketing GmbH
     •    Buy early, buy online campaign from Buchwert bookshop

The Netherlands:
     •    December is now! campaign from Paagman bookshop 

Portugal: 
     •    Shop in bookshops this Christmas  

United Kingdom: 
     •    Shop early, shop local campaign  
     •    Shop local this Christmas initiative supporting bookshops during lockdown 
     •    Wider choose bookshops campaign 

USA: 
     •    A set of marketing materials highlighting 'shop now, shop local', including ''Tis the season to shop local' poster
     •    With 20% of independent bookstores across the United States at risk of closing, the American Booksellers Association has launched the #BoxedOut campaign to draw attention to the challenges indie bookstores are facing ahead of the holiday season
     •    "October is the new December" campaign highlighting the buy early, buy local initiatives (campaign was later adapted to "November is the new December")
     •    Adaptable poster for bookstores outlining 'how you can support indies' 

Are you aware of any other ‘buy early, buy local’ initiative? Let us know!

Notes

Sources for the Amazon graphics:

Hamrick, D. (2020, March 10). How to Sell on Amazon International Marketplaces. Retrieved from https://www.junglescout.com/blog/amazon-marketplaces/ 

MWPVL International Inc. (unknown). Amazon Global Supply Chain and Fulfillment Center Network. Retrieved from https://www.mwpvl.com/html/amazon_com.html 

Ecommerce Europe. (2018, July 02). The European Ecommerce Report 2018: relevant
findings outlined. Retrieved from https://www.eurocommerce.eu/media/159952/2018.07.02 - Ecommerce report_annex.pdf

Statista. (2020, January). Annual net sales of Amazon in selected leading markets from 2014 to 2019. Retrieved from https://www.statista.com/statistics/672782/net-sales-of-amazon-leading-markets/

Statista. (2020, April). Amazon annual net sales in the United Kingdom (UK) from 2010 to 2019. Retrieved from https://www.statista.com/statistics/1035592/net-sales-amazon-united-kingdom-uk/ 

Evans, B. (2019, December 19). What's Amazon's market share?. Retrieved from https://www.ben-evans.com/benedictevans/2019/12/amazons-market-share19