Freedom for commercial photographers

It has been suggested that commercial photographers could lose the right to take photographs of things such as public works of art without first gaining permission of the creator. This has been suggested in an amendment to a report in the European Parliament. The report is a non-binding opinion report of the Parliament so even if it went through it would not become EU policy at this stage.

Labour MEPs do not support the whole of this amendment on Freedom of Panorama, and are tabling further amendments. There are a lot of good policies in this report, and we believe in the principle of creators being rewarded for their work, however some measures are impractical. We will work to make sure photographers' concerns are reflected in the final report that will be put to MEPs in July. 

Labour are against this proposal and will put forward changes which would see it removed from the final report. It has been suggest that the EU has proposed this when in fact it is an amendment to a non-binding report of the Parliament. It is important to remember that even if it went through at this stage it would not become EU legislation.

This amendment is a bad proposal and as MEPs we're working to make sure it's rejected; that's democracy in action.