Federal Minister Gernot Blümel: Making fair competition possible in the digital world

Opening of the EU conference “Challenging (the) Content”

Under the Austrian Presidency of the Council of the European Union Federal Minister for the Media Gernot Blümel opened the conference "Challenging (the) Content" on 8 October in the Austria Center Vienna with the following words:

“If there is something that we can take home from the media symposium, it is the fact that we should face challenges together – within the individual members states as well as across Europe. Therefore it is important to continue the media policy debate on a European level.” 

In the run‑up to the conference Gernot Blümel stated that fairness between European and non‑European players had to be called for when fixing framework conditions and deciding on taxation and regulation.

“With the copyright directive a first big step has been taken to create fair conditions of competition in the digital world. The directive is important in order to safeguard fundamental rights such as intellectual property”, the Federal Minister stressed.

The Austrian Presidency of the Council of the EU would try to find in the trialogue together with the European Parliament the best possible agreement.

“On both days our main focus be will on finding ways to maintain identity, quality and diversity in the digital world. Of equal importance are the questions of how alliances can be promoted and fair competition can be made possible”, Federal Minister for the Media Gernot Blümel concluded.

 

More information about this event can be found on the event page.