Jacques Toubon speaks at the FEP annual rendez-vous in Frankfurt

This year’s FEP rendez-vous at the Frankfurt Book Fair had Mr. Jacques Toubon, former French Minister of Culture and MEP, as the guest keynote speaker. Mr. Toubon underlined the value of the European cultural and creative industries, and in particular of the publishing industry, the largest in the world. He outlined the challenges for creative industries in the digital era, focusing on the risks deriving from the dominant positions that several players – all coming from other sectors, such as retail and ICT – are assuming in the European markets of cultural products, e-books included; moreover, such players are all non-European. Mr. Toubon also addressed the cause of reduced VAT rates for e-books, which he knows very well; in fact, he has been appointed by the French government (the previous, and confirmed by the new one) to be an ambassador on this important issue and in this capacity he has met many members of Member States’ governments and high level EU officials.

Mr Jacques Toubon

Mr Jacques Toubon with FEP President, Mr Piotr Marciszuk