COREPER backs final trilogue compromise agreement

 

20 February 2019

EU governments have approved the compromise text of the Copyright Directive by qualified majority at a COREPER meeting of 20 February (reported on Politico and Financial Times). Notably, the Netherlands, Italy, Poland, Finland and Luxembourg would not support the agreement, labelling it a “step back for the Digital Single Market rather than a step forward”. Abstainers include Belgium and Slovenia. Despite speculations that Germany would perhaps vote against certain provisions of the text (German Justice Minister Katarina Barley specifically advocated for the deletion of article 13), their position soon changed to vote in favour.

The agreement paves the way for a vote at the JURI committee meeting next week (26 February), and a final vote at the European Parliament plenary mid-April.