Laurence FARRENG

Policy topics Laurence FARRENG is active on

What Laurence FARRENG has said (21)

• 2024-10-01 “E-001911/2024 Answer given by Executive Vice-President Mînzatu on behalf of the European Commission The Erasmus+ study period abroad must be relevant for the student’s degree-related learning and personal development needs and be part of the study programme followed by the student at its home university 1 . Details of learning contents during time abroad are defined by the universities involved in the mobility activity. The Gaziantep Islamic University 2 offers courses ranging from natural science, engineering, medicine to economics, administration or social science and was awarded an Erasmus Charter for Higher Education 3 . The Commission is politically committed and legally bound to ensure that no one receives EU funding if they are involved in criminal or unethical practices, terrorism-related offences, or in other activities incompatible with EU values. The recent Financial Regulation recast 4 introduced an explicit ground under the early detection and exclusion system for excluding entities from receiving EU funds if they have engaged in activities contrary to the values on which the EU is founded 5 , such as incitement to discrimination, hatred, or violence 6 . Mechanisms framed by the EU Financial Regulation have been put in place to protect the EU values, including by adding new provisions in the Erasmus+ documents and grant agreements. The Commission will continue rigorous monitoring procedures through checks and followups on compliance with EU values. This includes regular audits, feedback from exchange students, and close collaboration with national agencies responsible for the implementation of actions under the Erasmus+ programme. The Commission will immediately act on any evidence in this respect, by implementing appropriate measures against unreliable entities, e.g. suspension of contract or payments, contract termination, recovery, even exclusion from EU financing. 1 Erasmus+ programme guide: https://erasmus-plus.ec.europa.eu/sites/default/files/2024-11/erasmus-programmeguide-2025_en.pdf 2 https://www.gantep.edu.tr/en/ 3 https://erasmus-plus.ec.europa.eu/document/higher-education-institutions-holding-an-eche-2021-2027? 4 https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/990fe2a6-8f52-11ef-a130-01aa75ed71a1/language-en 5 These values are enshrined in Article 2 of the Treaty on European Union and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. 6 Article 138(1)(c)(vi) of Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2024/2509 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 September 2024 on the financial rules applicable to the general budget of the Union (recast), OJ L, 2024/2509, 23.9.2024.”
  Gender roles, equality and inclusion · Governance of academic priorities within the EU
• “Thank you. President. Commissioner. We need a legislative proposal urgently to finally effectively combat online illegal streaming of sporting events. So we're seeing an increase. For example, in Paris 20 2024, there was five times more illegal streaming than than in Tokyo. So this is money being lost for our cultural and creative industries. Online content is particularly at risk. For example, a boxing match or a football match that's value drops minute by minute to. In France, this would be €1.5 billion in 2024, so 12% of the audiovisual market. This illegal streaming means that broadcasters are losing money. The major leagues are museums, but also a small clubs are losing their benefits as well. A third of revenue from each football club in France comes from sale of broadcast rights. So the online piracy has an impact on the competitiveness directly. Commissioner, we need to act more quickly and more effectively. That's the basis of the letter was sent to president von der Leyen. The DSA is the key to this, but it's not tailored for the swift takedown of these sites. So we need a new legislative proposal so that we can have specific achievements. Thank you.”
  Broadcasting of sports events
• “Thank you. Chair. Dear Axel, dear colleagues. I think this is a crucial report. This committee bears a lot of responsibility today doing this. So thank you, Axel Voss, for breathing life into this first text as an eminent copyright expert in a few weeks. Uh, I text will be entering into force, but it will be insufficient. That much is crystal clear. We need To look at generative AI versus respect for copyright as an issue. There's data mining covered in the Copyright Directive, but the right to intellectual property is not respected. We need to ensure that we protect cultural goods that are being put into training AI, especially outside the EU and especially in the US. So this is a key principle. There are three chapters in the report where we should include this principle. Transparency is important. We have a good code of practice, but it's not coming up with the goods. It's not doing the job. It's not enough to have a summary. We need to ensure that we have full transparency of which data have been used. If we don't invert the burden of proof and put the burden on the developer to show that they have not used certain sources, then we won't be able to achieve effective transparency and that will be at the expense of creatives. Opt out is important, but in the meantime we need to solve the transparency issue first.”
  Artificial Intelligence
• “President, Commissioner colleagues, Donald Trump has one obsession attacking European legislation to destabilize us. After the attacks on climate, trade, defense, industry and even our farming. Now he's turned his attention, but now he's continuing and he's attacking our cultural model. In February, the Trump administration was helped by VOD and magnates and cinema magnates. And there he and others listed all of the trade barriers to American industry. And he included the Avms in his list, which is a cornerstone of diversity on VOD platforms. This directive since 2019 has. Ensured that Disney and Netflix and others have been involved in, uh, putting European content on their platforms. Today, in our resolution, we want to fight back against the repeated attacks on us, and we have yet another threat and one a potential 100% levy on all non US produced films. What the US president is attacking is our very cultural model, which is so unique against the Hollywood juggernaut. So let's say to the to President Trump that we will continue to defend our talents, our prize winners, whether they are French, Iranian, Swedish, Danish or Spanish Dutch.”
  EU support for traditional (non-digital) media
• “Thank you. Chair. Dear colleagues, now I switch to French. I'm delighted to be here at the committee to present the legislative opinion. I'll be providing on behalf of the committee regarding the horizon program. So allow me to remind you that the committee is responsible for cultural heritage, artistic creativity, higher education and education related aspects of the information society. So many fields affected by the horizon program and its pillars. My draft opinion was published last week, and I presented it yesterday to my colleagues in the committee. As a rapporteur, I have a number of main priorities which are reflected in my amendments. Firstly, I want to make sure account is taken of the creative and cultural industries as well as research projects linked to them, particularly regarding technological innovations, because our cultural industries and the technology they use are part of our European sovereignty. I mention, for instance, progress in the audiovisual sector, video games as well, which are really interesting. I know my colleague Christian Alers. I worked with in the last parliamentary term, is very aware of this. So it's important that these industries are covered by the competitiveness part of pillar two. I wanted to mention that in my amendments I also included that the European Technology Institute has not been mentioned in the financing and in its current progress. It did an interesting piece of work on cultural creative industries. Secondly, I want to make sure that higher education is covered in the funding for research as well as the private sector and industry. I suggested an amendment regarding funding for universities and their incubators in pillar three. Furthermore, I am defending the role and funding of European university alliances, as I recall in my initiative opinion.”
  Research priorities within the EU
• “Thank you chairman. Thank you, Vice President. Thank you for being with us today in the Legal Affairs Committee. Well, this is the World Day of Books and Copyright. And my question is about intellectual property and its importance for the dynamism of the European economy. Well, you're reminded us all that intellectual property is an important growth factor for our companies. It's also a tool for increasing our industrial sovereignty and creating strategic assets, which is very important in a period of trade war. The European Intellectual Property Office, EU IPO and the large intellectual property offices in Europe have revenue and they are making large amounts of money. Smes generate 68% more profits per employee than companies that don't have intellectual property. It's also an issue when it comes to getting access to financing and investment. So in Europe, less than 9% of SMEs have one of the three types of registrable property. That's to say a patent, an industrial design, or a brand name or trademark that is. So what do you intend to do to encourage Europe's companies, particularly SMEs, to create and give value to their intellectual property.”
  Intellectual property rights (IPR)
• “Thank you, thank you. Thank you very much. For this study, I have not rejected ChatGPT for a summary. But with interest, and I have already. Thank you very much. Discussed together. Really today, I am very happy with those who NE cease to if we DO NOT answer solutions to this problem of data use, disregard for copyright, even temporary, we are all the great dias there is no longer any reason in fact to negotiate once the data and the models are, and it is really the office of artificial intelligence will be able to move forward more quickly on the rating of practices and the management of this subject, by understanding the trust and which NE cannot be. Not done on the use of the proposed works, the models of complex generative systems and a large amount of data. It is also appropriate to implement traceability measures. They exist to do so but can be used and applicable and which take into account Cisco, in particular IT involves using expensive technologies like blockchain. I also raised the question of the possibility of regulating open source models to prevent the competitiveness of some of our companies, whether it's by the number of users or the data used, how can we do that? There are many questions, really, indeed; it's a fundamental issue of the European Union. The platform, for example, fights to ensure the confidentiality of discussions between developers and authors to avoid this issue, and ultimately, copyright in terms of remuneration, when it can be the subject of monetary transactions, but when it comes to the rights of authors to their works in France. It is perpetual, inalienable, and imprescriptible; the author can always oppose any alteration of his work. This is prejudicial to his honor. Thank you..”
  Artificial Intelligence
• “That is the way that our young artists can not have access to. On the other side, from the other side of the channel, because of the 90 day rule and all these limitations post-Brexit. So we need to reinforce those exchanges. Now, you know, that legislation concerning, uh, uh, artists uh rights in the age of AI. This is something we're going to be talking about, uh, this afternoon. This affects everybody. Elton John is, uh, talking to Keir Starmer about this and trying to protect artists, uh, material. And also, there is this question of dropping, uh, students fees for foreign students to attend UK universities. This is very important for these exchanges for the time being. Because the student fees are far too high in the UK to make it possible for students to come over from the continent. So these are things that need to be amended, uh, in light of what happened yesterday. I hope to have the amendments from my various shadow rapporteurs so that we can work on a the most forward looking and realistic text possible. That also takes into account these very positive developments from yesterday. There is political will there to bring the EU and the UK closer together around culture, youth, education and sport. Thank you.”
  EU and national cultural identities
• “As I recalled in my initiative report on the future of European university alliances, which was broadly supported last year, these alliances have a strong potential on research. It was foreseen for the 2021 2027 horizon program to be able to finance the alliances, but that didn't end up being the case. I'm not asking for a specific budget for these alliances, but I would like their added value to be acknowledged, as well as their success and their potential when it comes to research. And allow me to remind you that this project was launched in 2019. There was supposed to be 20. We now have 65, and they cover all kinds of universities and all of Europe. So this is a really important initiative to boost our research potential. So I've added a definition and also strengthened the wording. Finally, I think the horizon program should focus on pure research. And I'm a bit confused by the Commission's proposal to finance physical infrastructure. I think it's a bit unclear really. We don't really understand what these infrastructures are. Does it include buildings. So actual building projects, which would of course take up a lot of money and wouldn't leave much for research. So I think there should be a possibility for equipment that is needed to to be funded rather than buildings. So these are shadow rapporteurs are amendments are expected soon will be voting this in cult in the middle of March. And I look forward to taking part in your future meetings and to make the voice of culture and higher education heard. And I'm sure that your rapporteurs will be very aware of these issues. Thank you.”
  Research priorities within the EU
• “We don't have any ECR colleagues, so I shall give the floor now to Mr. Frank Lawrence from Virginia. Thank you very much indeed, Commissioner. From me too. In your presentation, you were talking about Daft Punk. Harder, better, stronger, faster. And I want to talk to you about music because we need to have a focus on music in the future. Agora EU programme. This is something which our 2023 report was very clear about, and we feel very strongly about it. It's a very lively living sector in the European Union and so it's really important that we support it. New music moves Europe is a good initiative, but it still needs to be ramped up a bit because this sector is very significant and the program is not really commensurate with that live. Europe is aspiring, I think, to be a kind of European musical equivalent of cinema. So what do you envisage by way of support and rollout of this focus on music? What do you intend to do by way of funding it? What will the budget look like? Will it be a dedicated, ring fenced budget for music? So music is the first question, then the second one. How about the greening of the programme? This is something which we also raised during the last Parliament, and I'm very happy to hear and see that these are priorities that have been rolled over from the 2020 report. I'm also happy to see that the initiative that has included the European Solidarity Corps in to Erasmus. I'd also like to know if you could tell us a bit more what you intend to do with that Out, then governance is a very important issue too.”
  EU and national cultural identities
• “Last but not least, the third point. Remuneration. We should pursue the aim of fair remuneration. The idea of a tax, as proposed by the rapporteur should be considered not as an aim in itself, but for the leverage it could give to those who have created value. Now, I do understand the idea of immediate remuneration because of the amount of training which has already taken place without any corresponding remuneration. But and it's a big but, we should be careful here that this does not become a fixed sole price across the board. It has to be dynamic. It has to be on the basis of an ongoing dialogue, has to be on the basis of negotiations with those engaged in creation central register. They are not so keen. Of having an EU register. I could see that as potentially introducing a new layer of administration. Collective management could be the byword there, but we need to discuss this once again. Finally, briefly to the Commission. We won't create the future of AI if we're not respecting the fundamental rights of creators. It's not about holding back innovation. It's about ensuring that it is fair, sustainable and European. We have had attacks from the US and we need to respond to that, ensure that our own laws are respected and strengthened.”
  Artificial Intelligence
• “Thank you very much, President. While the objective of these own-initiative reports is important, it is to quickly draw up the lines and complete the act on what is not enough, why not? It was developed by the arrival of people, which is why there is not enough on the subject of copyright, even if thanks to the European Parliament, we were able to add the transparency clause. So we must not have discussions again, and we need to defend the principles of transparency in authors' remuneration, and what we can afford today to leave our European culture, and what we can allow the media to do in an orderly manner. No, it is truly a subject of democracy and sovereignty that is on the agenda of our entire European agenda, Open. So it is in this work to find solutions that address the complexity of the major principles, the principles of authors' remuneration. Yes, we do not want to reopen copyright, but we absolutely must find the solution to say. There is no reason to have free media and cultural data in another time. In terms of competitiveness, obviously, for Europe, general artificial intelligence must be developed, and there is another point that is very important, which is the creation of a European data sphere in terms of culture and media, which we can also serve and build. In any case, I think once again that there is great relevance in this report, and the work should be heard and because it is essential. Thank you very much.”
  EU support for traditional (non-digital) media
• “La Russie lors des derniers jours par Olympique de Milan-cortina est particulierement grave et préoccupante q IL passer au comité international et au gouvernement italien pour ainsi a la pression de la Russie. Cela appel vraiment des réponses nous NE pouvons pas accepter le retour de la Russie dans les competitions sportives dans la guerre contre l'ukraine du guerre, qui a fait des milliers de morts et parmi des centaines de athletes, G rappelle a c titre l'initiative, qui nous avons porté au sein de Parlement avec plusieurs députés pour des eaux de la vie et les sanctions contre les Ukrainians qui pendant les Jeux olympiques. Un in casque en hommage a ses camarades par les rues de la réponse du coup. Nous voulons voir la durée et la mémoire s'exprime et son pursue différemment. Selon les cultures vraiment les assassins de jeunes gens NE pas au minimum du respect et au mieux une condamnation unanime de la parte d'une organisation représentatif des valeurs de l'olympique. Merci.”
  Broadcasting of sports events
• “I think we need to continue to work on that. I want that. I think that that can really benefit EU students, because the number has dropped significantly in the UK because of the difficulty in obtaining Visas and also for the education fees and costs. So yesterday's, uh, the first summit since Brexit between the EU and the UK, it shows that the UK and the EU announced that they have a political will to work. On youth experience scheme. The word mobility is a bit taboo because it's directly linked to migration. Uh, in the semantics of our relations, particularly from the UK side. So the visa scheme is something that we're very clear about. Now, this youth experience scheme is something that's still a work in progress. From what we heard yesterday, we must remain very attentive to developments. We've heard a lot said about students, but there's all this school trips concerned. Uh, there's a rather surrealist dimension. Uh, in the application of the Brexit break, was that school trips were virtually considered to be migration trips, and that is something we need to find some balance there. It's, uh, it's out there. And I think they were going to be working on that. The second point, of course, is culture and in particular mobility of artists and artists and transport their mobility, this, uh, famous 90 day rule where they have to come back and ask for a visa.”
  EU and national cultural identities
• “In the last programme for Creative Europe, we saw that Agora EU was divided into DGs DG, just DG connect. So it was divided across three different directorates. How do you envisage the governance working? Because this is an ambitious programme. It sounds so anyway but I worry about the governance being fragmented. Chairman thank you.”
  Digitalization of public governance & administration
• “Madam president. Madam president. Commissioner. Something like 10% of children in France are victims of child sexual abuse. Girls twice as often as boys. Every few minutes, a child is a victim of rape, incest or sexual abuse. What this new legislation does is harmonise concepts and this is great progress. The web and social networks are regulated by the DSA, but we're still seeing this material being produced. I think we need further progress. We need further progress in terms of protection of minors and age verification. We should have an age of majority fixed at 15 for the internet, and we should not have council blocking progress allowing abuse of children to continue.”
  Safety features & content control for child protection online
• “Thank you. Thank you very much. I'm sorry for those internal issues we had there. Now, whether you're a legislator, an artist, a creator defending rights and using these new tools in AI, we can see the importance of the training data that you have reminded us of today. This is absolutely key. I have three questions I'd like to run through quickly. First of all, quite technically for Professor Ben Salmon, we concede that your will to protect copyright. But there are the technical structure behind that. Now, there's a central register that's being looked into where creators can provide consent to AI model providers, or a market where these could be linked up. I'm not sure what your view is on that potential and what would be the good organisation to deal with that? Would it be the Intellectual Property Office in the EU, the international organisation or the collective management organizations. Now, another question on how our institutions work on this subject here. There is strong support from the European Parliament for the transparency clauses. This is for artists and this is in the AI act. However, there is there are problems in with this clause because the code of practice is not being implemented because of the discussions with the Commission. And I think it's a real shame that the Commission didn't take the floor after your presentations. But today, what I can see is that the artists that want to leave the negotiating table to say, don't look at this issue. I think this is a very harmful thing. So I'd like to ask you, what is the good practice? Should we not go back to the very beginning on those discussions? Thank you.”
  Artificial Intelligence
• “President, Vice president, colleagues, Europe is the main political space to have put in place the rule of law online, the first with regulation for our personal data, the GDPR, with the DSA and DMA to hold to account the large American and Chinese operators. We also have the AI act. And today, those rules are now said to be too complicated. But for whom? For Europeans or for those who are putting us under pressure day after day on the other side of the Atlantic, this digital simplification plan is a bit what Donald Trump would dream of, and the commission has put it out there. For years, businesses have been dealing with GDPR, and now you want to put our personal data into circulation to train AI. The AI act is not even yet in force, and you're already wanting to put off AI regulation for high risk AI and also the labelling of content generated by AI. So we have fake news and deepfake on the agenda. We really need to come back to this one.”
  Artificial Intelligence
• “Madam president. Commissioner. Ladies and gentlemen, on the 8th of August, the regulation on media freedom is going to come into force. It's the first to give a clear framework to the structure of European press protection of journalists. And it's a pillar of our democracy because it allows the European Commission to take determined action against media concentration. That's crucial because freedom of expression is not freedom of disinformation. Only pluralism can guarantee freedom of opinion. And that's why we have to stop Viktor or or ban putting all of his journalists in Hungary under his clause, and the same in France as well, just through the strength of money. Once again, it's a guarantee of pluralism which has to win through. So we need clear and rapid implementation of the rules on media freedom, which have to be supported by the future Democratic Shield. And there can be no Democratic shield unless we want to invest heavily in European media, which we will be calling for under the next budget.”
  EU support for traditional (non-digital) media
• “President. Thank you. Chairs. I want to talk about access to high quality information. I have two questions. The first is about media deserts. There are true problem. And if we look at traditional outlets such as radio and newspapers in some US states, there's a lack of local media outlets. And what has filled the space? Conspiracy theories. So how do you deal with this issue of media deserts? We know that radio is very important. Radio was particularly important in times of warfare and continues to be important now in Ukraine. Recently there was also the blackout in Spain and Portugal, and the radio was very important there. Now, when it comes to accessing high quality information, we have digital sources, we have strong laws, but they need to be applied when it comes to digital. Now I want to talk about AI. Ai is something that we're currently discussing, and we know that ChatGPT has become a new search engine that people constantly use, but it has to be reliable. Now, what about editors? What about AI as a whole? And should there be some kind of remuneration for AI content?”
  EU support for traditional (non-digital) media
• “Thank you very much indeed, chair and colleagues. So first of all, let me say that following the conclusions of the UK EU summit yesterday, which are very, very positive concerning youth and culture, I will amend this draft report because we need to take into account this this very latest, uh, The events. So, as I say, I have my draft, uh, rapport. The TCA for the end of April, uh, cult has exclusive competencies. Let me remind you, as far as youth, education, sport and culture are concerned. Is that okay? Okay. Well, we did this evaluation exercise of the TCA two years ago, and I'm the rapporteur for the cult committee for this same implementing, uh, report. Uh, the conclusions are the same. There's virtually nothing to evaluate as far as culture, education, youth and sport are concerned because the UK authorities and it was the political objective, decided to break all links with EU Erasmus. Creative Europe and solidarity. Those four sectors are completely absent from the TCA now. The report as tabled a few weeks ago. I really have focused, in my opinion, on two sectors which I think may show positive developments in the coming months and years. And yesterday's summit confirmed this. First of all, youth and mobility with the youth visa scheme. Now, this proposal by the commission, which was initially rejected by the former UK government last year.”
  EU volunteering programs