The Turkish Publishers Association organizes a biennial assembly of the Turkish publishing industry. On 25-26 June 2020, the 9th version of the assembly was held online because of the Covid-19 pandemic bringing together a total of 58 speakers (46 local and 12 international) to the six-session event.
IPA's Educational Publishers Forum (EPF) held its first virtual meeting on 19 June 2020, because members were unable to travel to Istanbul as planned due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
At 1pm CEST on Thursday 18 June 2020, watch IPA President, Hugo Setzer, talk to Maria Pallante, CEO of the Association of American Publishers about how publishers have reacted to the COVID-19 pandemic and how they are looking to the future.
On 10 June, the Bulgarian Parliament adopted a proposal to reduce VAT on several goods and services, including books (only print), from the standard 20% rate to a reduced rate of 9%.
The measure, which will enter into force as of the 1st of July, is part of the government’s recovery plan from the COVID-19 crisis. It is meant to be a temporary initiative, until the end of 2021. It is nonetheless very significant, as Bulgaria was one of two EU Members States to never have applied reduced VAT on books (the other being Denmark) – whereas the other 25 have a reduced or super-reduced (or even zero) rate for print books, as do the UK and EEA countries Norway and Iceland.
Moreover, 18 Member States apply a reduced rate to digital books. The possibility to apply reduced VAT to print books has been enshrined in EU legislation since many years, whereas only in 2018 was the legal framework modified to include digital publications. Two Member States (Spain and Estonia) and the UK adopted or sped up the adoption of reduced rates on digital publications as a crisis-related measure.
Thanks to Enrico Turrin of FEP for this update.
The final day of this SCCR began with the Chair recognising a cloud of fatigue in the room and encouraging delegates to press on through the day to finish the week.
Day 4 of this 42nd meeting of the SCCR picked up exactly where Day 3 left off, with discussions on exceptions and limitations and observer organisations continuing their statements.
Day 3 of SCCR 42 opened with further discussion and analysis of the new text on the broadcasting treaty with the afternoon reserved for discussions on exceptions and limitations.
