European publishers display innovation in Brussels

European publishers met today with Mr Xavier Prats Monné, Director General from DG Education and Culture and Mr Robert Madelin, Director General from DG CONNECT. Pierre Dutilleul, Director of External and Interprofessional Relations at Editis and President of the Federation of European Publishers led the delegation composed by Jaume Vicens, Managing Director of Vicens Vives, Riccardo Cavallero, CEO of Mondadori Libri, Dominic Knight, Chairman of Palgrave Macmillan and President of the UK Publishers Association and Hedwige Pasquet, President of Gallimard Jeunesse, who presented the innovative trends in publishing to the European Commission.

These publishers gave a very valuable insight into the publishing sector and displayed how technologies have changed the publishing business and how publishers have taken advantage of them. The two Director Generals and their colleagues were presented with various demos showing how publishing embraced and is now making the most of technologies. The need for positive policies was also enhanced by the delegation, such as balanced and fair copyright conditions, the lowest possible rate of VAT on printed and ebooks, interoperability and fair competition on the Internet, to name only a few.

These meetings were also the perfect occasion to remind the European Commission of the strength of the book sector. In 2013, the total annual sales revenue of book publishers of the EU and the EEA was approximately € 22.3 billion, according to the survey conducted by the Federation of European Publishers, and a total of about 560,000 new titles were issued by publishers. European publishers held a total of about 14.5 million different titles in stock (of which more than 2 million in digital format), and a total of approximately 130,000 people were employed full time in book publishing in 2013, and more than half a million taking into account the entire value chain.

Press release