EUROPEAN PARLIAMENTARIANS WRITE TO EC ON RAAP

 

Nearly five years on from the EU’s RAAP ruling, French Socialist MEP Emma Rafowicz and fellow MEPs from across the political spectrum and from various EU member states have asked Executive Vice President of the European Commission Henna Virkkunen to share the EC’s timeline for clarifying conformity of the principle of reciprocity with EU law.   

 

In their question, MEPs stress that “the EU’s capacity to exert trade pressure on third countries who do not follow EU legal norms is also at stake”. At the end of last year, several member states had also called on EVP Virkkunen to fix the consequences of the RAAP ruling.

 

IMPALA’s Executive Chair Helen Smith commented : “It will be five years in September since the RAAP ruling was delivered. We welcome the renewed momentum at EU level to address the consequences of this ruling and to clarify that the principle of reciprocity can apply, in line with the international treaties signed by the EU. We are comforted to see that members of the European Parliament, as well as key members states, are keeping an eye on this and urging the EC to act. We now look to the EC to take action.»

The written question was co-signed by the following members of the European Parliament :

 

Emma Rafowicz (France, S&D)

Hannes Heide (Austria, S&D)

Bogdan Andrzej Zdrojewski (Poland, EPP)

Laurence Farreng (France, Renew)

Marcos Ros Sempere (Spain, S&D)

Milan Zver (Slovenia, EPP)

Aurore Lalucq (France, S&D)

Nikos Papandreou (Greece, S&D)
Sandro Ruotolo (Italy, S&D)

IMPALA was established in 2000 and now represents over 6000 independent music companies in Europe. 99% of Europe’s music companies are small, micro and medium businesses and self-releasing artists. Known as the independents, they are world leaders in terms of innovation and discovering new music and artists – they produce more than 80% of all new releases and account for 80% of the sector’s jobs. IMPALA’s mission is to grow the independent music sector sustainably, return more value to artists, promote diversity and entrepreneurship, improve political access, inspire change, and increase access to finance. IMPALA works on a range of key issues for its members and started a new co-funded work programme as an EU cultural network in 2025. IMPALA runs various award schemes and has a programme aimed at businesses who want to develop a strategic relationship with the European independent sector – Friends of IMPALA