At the start of this year, we’re spotlighting some of our policy-related priority areas for the upcoming months 

 

As representatives of booksellers of all kinds across the European Union (EU) and worldwide, we find ourselves at an intersection between culture and the retail business. At EIBF, we represent and speak on behalf of small- and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) whose daily work consists of helping book-lovers find their next read. Over the years, booksellers have proven to be innovative and resilient entrepreneurs that help stimulate their local communities, providing them with access to books and culture.

To ensure the continuous and sustainable development of the bookselling sector, in line with our core values defined in our Book Charter, we are deeply engaged in political updates within the cultural and creative sector that might affect businesses and retailers. Our focus areas range from fair competition and digitalisation to cultural recovery measures in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

With 2021 now underway, we take this opportunity to give you a glimpse of some of the political priorities that we will be following closely: 

 

Digital Markets Act

On 15 December 2020, the European Commission presented two proposals to regulate digital services: the Digital Services Act (DSA) and the Digital Markets Act (DMA), whose introduction we warmly welcomed.

In particular, we are looking forward to working on the DMA, as a legislative tool that strives for fairer competition in the digital world and aims to increase accountability of large online platforms with a gatekeeper role, such as online marketplaces that more often than not abuse their dominant position. We hope that the DMA will live up to our expectations by delivering a clear set of obligations and prohibitions to be followed by digital gatekeepers. 

The need for a level playing field in the digital sphere has proven to be even greater during the COVID-19 pandemic, as giant e-retailers continue to operate, making huge profit, while European bookshops, despite their innovativeness and resilience over the last months, are fighting to be recognized as essential.

During 2021, we will closely monitor the evolution of both files in the European Parliament and Council discussions to ensure that booksellers’ priorities and concerns continue to be upheld.

 

Approval of Creative Europe Programme

The Creative Europe Programme is the key financial programme at EU level to support the cultural and creative sector. You might have seen our contribution to several joint letters in the past year, calling for an increase of the programme’s budget. We were happy to see that, together with the support of MEPs in the European Parliament’s Culture committee, our efforts were successful! The programme now has a total budget of €2.4 billion, its highest ever, at a time in which it is desperately needed.

We also celebrate the inclusion, for the first time, of a sectorial action to support the book and publishing sector in the programme. While we will have to wait and see what this translates into exactly, the recognition of the book sector as a priority in the programme is already a promising start.

With a political agreement having been reached, we now await the final ratification of the programme and the publication of the calls for proposals.

 

Recovery and Resilience Plans

Throughout last year, we actively called for the allocation of 2% of national Recovery and Resilience Plans to the cultural sector, together with many other cultural-sector organisations at European level. Under the European Commission’s Recovery Fund in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, Member States will have access to financial aid. To unlock the funding, each country must draft and submit a recovery and resilience plan by mid-2021, following guidelines and recommendations set by the Commission.

While some Member States have identified culture as a priority sector, we regret that this target is far from being reached. At EIBF, we continue to encourage our members to get in touch with their political representatives and demand adequate representation in their countries’ recovery plans.

Once these are submitted to the European Commission for approval, we will analyse how booksellers can benefit from the recovery plans in their respective Member States.

 

Digital taxation

Booksellers create local jobs, pay local taxes, and spend money with local suppliers. On the other hand, it is common knowledge that tech giants don’t pay their due taxes where they operate, thus not contributing to local economies. With this in mind, we have long condemned tax avoidance practices by large digital firms and strongly support the implementation of a digital tax.

Last year, we closely monitored the slow but steady efforts at OECD level to establish a global tax for tech giants, an approach supported and preferred by the European Commission. Nevertheless, given the delays in the process, the European Commission has announced the implementation of a European digital tax later this year. We are looking forward to seeing how this progresses and we will be pleased to provide professional information when necessary.

We are excited to announce the launch of a newsletter dedicated to sharing news from the EIBF world and the wider bookselling industry

 

Introducing the EIBF Insights 

The first issue of the series spotlights the book sector sustainability, shares some of the EIBF's policy priorities in 2021, looks at bookselling trends from 2020, and highlights digital campaigns to follow to support local bookstores. We are also looking forward to our upcoming webinar series. Don't miss out - read the first issue here. 

 

If you wish to subscribe to our newsletter, you can do so here. 

The one-day digital conference explored development perspectives of the book industry

 

On Wednesday, 24 February, booksellers, authors, publishers, policymakers and experts from across the book sector gathered for the second iteration of the European Book Forum – Assises européennes du Livre. After a year of pandemic and several lockdowns, the one-day conference assessed the contrasting situations that emerged in different European countries, the practices born out of the crisis, and the opportunities that will allow for a continuous and sustainable development of the book chain.

Together with the Syndicat des librairies francophones de Belgique (SLFB), the European and International Booksellers Federation co-organised a dedicated panel on bookstores. During the panel, booksellers from across Europe discussed how bookshops can improve their resilience to crises, while retaining their community spirit and boost their digital presence. 

The event was organised under the umbrella of the Brussels Book Fair, in partnership with the European Commission. It took place online, with multiple panel discussions, which were simultaneously translated into English, French, Dutch, and German. 

We share our impressions of the panels below, spotlighting the booksellers’ perspectives from a panel on improving bookshop resilience through time and crises, and a panel on sustainability activities from across the book chain.

 

Re-watch the event here. 

 

The place of the bookshop in its community or on the internet: how does the bookshop stand the test of time and crises?

 

Whether it is through a group of citizens or booksellers, the bookshop draws its strength from the community. It has done so before the crisis we are experiencing and will continue to do so in the future. The bookshop's resilience often comes from the collective, from associations of people with a common interest. 

 

 

In her presentation, Tracy Kenny highlighted how community can come together to save a local bookshop from closing. The Kett’s cooperative bookshop has been run by a team of 20 volunteers ever since 2013, and is set up as a community bookshop. All members have an equal vote, and this poses both an opportunity and a challenge: all members have to agree on all actions. “We have to work closely together, but that’s what volunteers enjoy,” said Tracy. Throughout the pandemic, the Kett’s cooperative bookshop managed to keep in touch with it customers and volunteer staff. Everyone helped in a different way, from taking orders on the phone to picking up books and storing them at their homes as needed. Resources and skills were pulled together, allowing everyone to play a part. 

 

There are six or seven other community bookshops in the UK, according to Tracy, with whom they keep in touch. The UK Booksellers Association has put together a guide explaining just how to set one up.

 

Another innovative project comes from Spain, where an online platform Todos Tus Libros offers independent bookshops an opportunity to reach customers via their digital sales platform. Many small and/or independent bookshops, struggle to establish or maintain a digital store. Participating on Todos Tus Libros gives bookshops this much needed digital exposure. At the same time, “when customers buy a book online, the money goes directly, without commission, to a chosen store,” said Jesús Trueba on the collaborative relationship with the platform. Describing his own personal experience from his bookshop on the platform, Jesús sees the greatest strength of the platform in supporting independent bookshops and local commerce in a viable way – one that also allows stores full control over their communications with customers. 

 

A similar platform was recently created in Belgium, where 57 French-speaking independent bookshops gathered to develop Librel. The Librel project has been ongoing for many years, but it was the first lockdown in Belgium that gave the ultimate push to officially launch it. The platform, that went online right before the second Belgian lockdown, offers one additional feature to customers: by clicking on a given book title, you can see various formats this book is available in (be it printed book, audio book or e-book). It also gives a customer an option to see the closest bookshop where they can buy the chosen title in a given format. Librel doesn’t yet include an integrated online payment system for physical books. Instead, customers pick the book they want to buy, reserve it at the bookshop of their choice, and proceed to pay in person when collecting the book at the bookshop. Personal relationships are key to keep independent bookshops growing, according to Philippe Goffe, and “we are keen to keep the contact between the customers and the booksellers, which this platform enables”.

 

Speakers: 

     •    Tracy Kenny, Director and shop manager at Kett's Book cooperative bookshop, a community bookshop run by volunteers in Norfolk (Great Britain) 
     •    Jesús Trueba, La Buena Vida bookshop in Madrid. Bookseller user of the Todos Tus Libros platform (Spain) 
     •    Philippe Goffe, creator of LIBREL, online sales portal for independent French-speaking Belgian booksellers (Belgium)
     •    Moderator: Nicolas Becquet (Journalist at the Belgian newspaper l’Echo)

 

Towards eco-responsibility: new initiatives in the book sector

 

Ecological responsibility is a hot topic for many actors in the book chain - although it could be more so, especially in practice. Compared to ten years ago, we have emerged from an opposition between paper publishing versus digital publishing, the latter being once considered potentially the most virtuous.

Printing, circulation, transport - it is the whole sector that takes initiative. Whether the book is consumed on paper or on screen, today’s ecological innovation has developed and comes from new sources and avenues, inspired by other sectors, such as the French associations of local farmers, which trying to keep the agricultural sector alive.

While sustainability is a topic currently very high on the agenda in the publishing industry, it is certainly not a new subject. For the past 15 years, publishers have been talking about ways to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. The book industry is often perceived to be quite a polluter, raising questions on printing, circulation, and transport of books. 

 

 

However, there is a novelty in sustainable publishing – dealing not with publishing of books on sustainability, but actually fostering sustainable publishing in practice. A new online bookshop in France, AMAP Livr&Co aims to bring together on one platform all the eco-designed books by partnering with eco-responsible publishers. Every book featured contains information on it has been produced and manufactured, thus making customers feel more confident in their purchase. “It starts with obtaining the raw materials and ends with selling of books; we want to act as go-between those two points to ensure books are produced in a way that support local economy with the least environmental strain,” Charles Hédouin described the mission of the platform he co-founded last year. At the moment, AMAP Livr&Co works with around 20 publishing houses across France to deliver on their mission. 

 

On the other hand, Barbora Baronová, founder of the independent publishing house WO-MEN Publishing, explored the themes of ‘slow publishing’. Her company aims to approach book publishing from an ecological point of view, producing only a handful of books a year. “We spend weeks looking for and sourcing paper, for example, that has all the ecological certifications. We also focus on books that bring diversifying voices into the market, as giving space to these topics is very important,” said Barbara. 

 

Speakers: 

     •    Charles Hédouin, co-founder of AMAP Livr&Co (France) 
     •    Barbora Baronová, Founder of the independent publishing house WO-MEN Publishing (Czech Republic) 
     •    Mathijs Suidman, Commercial Director of Media Distribution, Centraal Boekhuis (The Netherlands)
     •    Moderator: Cécile Charonnat (Trade magazine Livres Hebdo) (France)

 

The panels will soon be available for replay on the Book Fair's Youtube channel, and their reports will be published from 5 March, every Friday, on the lettresnumeriques.be website.

Over 110 organisations across the European cultural community calls to secure a future for culture and cultural life in Europe  

 

Following the open letter published by 110 pan-European networks on 30 October 2020 “Make culture central in the EU recovery”, the group comes together again to reiterate their call to the national governments and the European Commission. In the second open letter published today by the group, coordinated by Culture Action Europe, the European cultural community call on the Member States and the European Commission to secure a future for culture and cultural life in Europe.

 

Culture must be included in each and every National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP) that EU countries should present to the European Commission before the 30 April deadline. The representatives of the European cultural ecosystem urge governments to dedicate at least 2% of the Recovery Fund to culture and put culture as a priority sector when using funds from Next Generation EU. In addition, 110 cultural networks call on the Member States to engage with the representatives of their cultural communities and civil society organisations in the design and implementation of the NRRPs. “Long-term structural support to rebuild the European cultural ecosystem needs to be co-developed, involving all relevant stakeholders, both public and private”, - reads the letter.

 

Ensuring that culture is explicitly included in the NRRPs will help secure both the future of the sector and its important contribution to Europe’s future. Reinvigorating the cultural ecosystem not only offers hope to millions of workers who saw their jobs endangered by the pandemic, it can also create new meaning and purpose to all Europeans and the European project.

 

Read the letter in full.
 

This week EIBF submitted its contribution to the European Commission’s open public consultation on the implementation of a European digital tax. The objective of the latter is to introduce a measure that allows for a fairer contribution from companies that operate in the digital sector, in order to support the European economy.

EIBF believes it is high time that digital tech giants pay their fair share of taxes where they generate profit and contribute to national economic activities. 

Our contribution to the consultation calls for swift action on a European digital tax for tech giants, as well as an adequate solution at international level, that would level the playing field without harming the online growth of European SMEs.

EUPL reveals 55 authors and books from 14 participating countries shortlisted for the 2021 European Union Prize for Literature 

 

The European Union Prize for Literature (EUPL) recognises emerging fiction writers from across Europe. The award includes 41 countries which are part of the Creative Europe programme – an initiative aiming to strengthen Europe’s cultural and creative sectors. The EUPL was launched in 2009, and since then recognised 135 winning authors through 12 editions. Each year, the EUPL awards one winner per country from a third of participating countries. This year's edition will award winners from 14 countries: Albania, Armenia, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Iceland, Latvia, Malta, Moldova, the Netherlands, Portugal, Serbia, Slovenia, Sweden, Tunisia.

 

 

The winners of the EUPL 2021 edition will be announced on 18 May in a digital event. 

 

Discover the full shortlist here. 

 

EUPL is organised by the consortium comprised of European Writers' Council (EWC), Federation of European Publishers (FEP), and the European and International Booksellers Federation (EIBF).

This Earth Day, discover the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Book Club recommendations around climate action

 

SDG 13: Climate Action

Did you know that the last decade was the warmest on record? Hot temperatures can cause wildfires that put animals and people in danger. Extreme weather phenomena, like hurricanes and droughts can damage people’s homes and force them to move. In 2018, more than 39 million people all over the world were in danger of losing their homes. That’s a really big number!

The rising temperature of the Earth is called “global warming.” If the Earth’s temperature keeps getting hotter, we will feel the effects of it. For example, global warming will melt the Arctic’s sea ice and cause the sea level to rise. If the sea level continues to rise, many islands and countries will struggle to stay above water and people and animals will lose their homes. To avoid this from happening, all of us must do something to help the Earth.

 

Find the SDG13 reading list here. 

 

SDG 13: Climate Action aims to help solve these problems. Since millions of people are in danger of losing their homes, we must take climate action seriously and do what we can to save the environment.

Browse through our new reading list to learn more about the consequences of climate change. Read the books together with your friends or family (or over video chat or physically distanced outdoors) and find fun ways to help save the Earth, one community at a time!

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 other pages for more recommendations in Arabic, Chinese, 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 IAF. Find out more. 

On this World Book Day, we give the floor to booksellers 

 

Every year, 23 April marks the World Book and Copyright Day. Launched in 1995 by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), the event aims to promote the enjoyment of books and reading. As representatives of thousands of booksellers, we do know the important role books play in our lives, especially now that we are facing another year of pandemic.   

During the last year, when most countries have experienced periods of confinement and people have had to limit their time spent outside, books have proven to be powerful tools to combat isolation, reinforce ties between people, and expand our horizons, while stimulating our minds and creativity. 

As an integral part of the book chain, bookshops are ideally positioned to provide access to literature and culture for all, thus improving reading habits across societies. This is now more important than ever.

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic prompted many different policy responses, with many countries imposing movement restrictions, and even full lockdowns, leaving businesses that rely on physical presence of customers in a precarious position. Booksellers, as many of their retail counterparts, were forced to close their doors for many weeks – resulting in drastically reduced sale numbers. 

To ensure they can survive this drastic and unexpected change in their daily activities, booksellers had to shift their business model and encourage their customers to buy books online – with substantial impact. Many booksellers came up with innovative actions to support local communities during these difficult times, from launching curb-side pickup or starting city-wide deliveries to hosting digital author events, book clubs and children reading hours.

Once allowed to re-open shops, and despite the numerous strict government regulations they had to comply with, many booksellers were happy to be able to welcome customers again inside their stores. The rush that followed the re-openings highlighted once more the essential character of bookshops and how they best fulfil this role while staying open.

With a few countries recognising bookshops as essential through the adoption of new decrees, the situation marginally improved during the last months. However, if this newly gained status represented a victory for a few, it still remains the fight of many. 

On this special day celebrating books and reading, EIBF calls on national governments to consider and recognise the essential role bookshops play in their communities when discussing the matter of their opening/closure. 

 

"Bookshops are safe havens"

We asked our members to reflect on the importance of reading and books in our daily lives. 

 

Sheila O'Reilly, Bookselling Ireland Liaison at the Booksellers Association of the UK and Ireland

 

“Some people say every person has 24 hours every day. Readers know that is not entirely true. Have you not read a book that has left you with the impression of having been absent (in it) for years? Books create time and hand it over to you.” Philippe Hunziker, bookseller and owner of Sophos bookshop in Guatemala 

 

“The beautiful thing with stories and books is that once they are written, published and dispatched they attract people around them and some of them won’t let you out of their pages, maybe for days after you finished reading them. Some you will find by chance, some are recommended by your friends, some by your bookseller, but still, you will find them. These days, some of us will be reading their to-read piles from home, some of us will be re-reading books we loved, and others will not be able to read and to focus. In this uncertain time we’re living in, each one of us reacts in the way we can and know, the only important thing is to stay home, read if you can focus, listen to those in more informed positions and have patience with yourself and those around you. Your booksellers are missing you, and all we can do is wait for you to come back to as soon as this is over. Until then, stay safe and read at home.” Oana Dobosi and Raluca Selejan, booksellers and co-owners of the Two Owls bookshop in Romania

 

“Reading allows you to go through time and space, to connect with other people and your inner self, to comprehend the world around you, and to find ideas, beauty, amusement. All that is possible just staying at home, with a good book. Reading can save us, now more than ever.” Hoepli bookshop, Italy

 

“Bookshops are lanterns of civilisation and, for many, beacons of hope.” Meryl Halls, Managing Director of the Booksellers Association of the UK and Ireland

We call for swift European action that requires tech giants to pay their fair share of taxes where they generate profit and contribute to national economies for the benefit of all

 

Bookstores are among the many SMEs that contribute to the financial and social development of their communities by providing jobs, paying local taxes and spending money with local suppliers. Equally, when customers spend locally (whether in physical stores or online), that money is also reinvested within their community.

On the other hand, tech giants with a huge digital presence, across the world and several European markets, have for many years, either avoided paying taxes or have taken advantage of tax deals, making little to no tax contributions compared to their smaller competitors, which raises concerns with their profits. 

Out of these, Amazon is the tech giant that has the biggest (and most harmful) impact on the book sector. In 2017, the European Commission found that Amazon had been given illegal selective tax benefits by the Luxembourg government. The Commission concluded that such tax deals allowed Amazon to pay substantially less tax than other businesses given that almost three-quarters of the tech giant’s business from May 2006 to June 2014 went untaxed, a claim Amazon is rebutting. 

Since then, further reports and investigations have revealed that several large digital corporations do not pay enough taxes or are given preferential tax breaks.

Efforts to adequately tax large digital corporations have not been successful or have not been achieved fast enough. For years, the Council of the EU has blocked advances in the country-by-country reporting proposal, a rule that would oblige multinationals to reveal how much profit they make and how much tax they pay in each of the 27 member states. Only in March 2021, the Council broke the deadlock and reached an agreement to start negotiating with the European Parliament  on the file — four years after the European Commission’s proposal.

Meanwhile, at a global level, the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) has been negotiating for the past years to introduce a global digital tax for very large corporations, so that they are taxed where profits are earned, regardless of physical presence. However, these negotiations have also faced delays and blocks. Due to these delays at an international level and the lack of initiative from the EU, national governments in Europe have begun pushing for their own digital taxation rules. This is the case, for instance, in France with the GAFA tax and in the UK with the Digital Services Tax for large multinational enterprises.

In response to this, tech giants began increasing fees and passing on costs for developers and third-party sellers. In the UK, for instance, they increased fees for third-party sellers by 2%, while other countries were also being hit by similar price rises. Once again, this results in small businesses and consumers paying the price for either a lack of real tax accountability or diverging national policies on corporate digital taxation. This must stop.

For many years, we have called for a fiscal level playing field and fair taxation legislation. With the European Commission expected to present a proposal for a European digital tax in June, and following the Commission’s open public consultation from April this year, we reiterate the urgent need to swiftly implement a European digital tax that does not harm or jeopardise European SMEs and their online growth, and enables them to compete on a fair level playing field with online tech giants. 

On a final note, as many voices in the European Parliament are reminding, it is still crucial to reach a solution on digital taxation at international level. With the Biden administration in the US, and increasing transatlantic cooperation, an agreement on an international digital tax might be closer than ever.

 

Photo: Morning Brew on Unsplash 

EIBF launches a flagship report providing in-depth insights into the pandemic impacts on the  bookselling sector in 2020

 

Behind us is an unprecedented year that completely turned our lives around – from stopping our social gatherings and closing many businesses for weeks on end, to facilitating a big swing to digital services. The book industry as a whole faced a substantial impact: cancelled trade fairs, seized supply chains, and frozen rights sales. Booksellers, as many of their retail counterparts, were forced to shut their doors – resulting in drastically reduced sales numbers.

To analyse the global bookselling trends in 2020 and start understanding the wide-ranging impacts of the Coronavirus pandemic on the industry, the European and International Booksellers Federation (EIBF) carried out a survey among its members and partners in March 2021. The national booksellers associations from seventeen countries responded to our written questionnaire, shedding light on challenges booksellers had faced since the outbreak of the pandemic in early 2020. 

This report collates insights into the bookselling industry of 2020, analysing the impacts of national policy responses to the pandemic, exploring the total sales numbers for the past year, and highlighting public and private initiatives launched to help the sector sustainably develop going forward. 

 

Discover the report here.