Source: EURLEX
Language: en
Format: md

[**Avis juridique important**](../../../editorial/legal_notice.htm)

*|*

# 92001E0255

**WRITTEN QUESTION E-0255/01 by Lord Inglewood (PPE-DE) to the Council. Right of Resale.** 
  
*Official Journal 235 E , 21/08/2001 P. 0126 - 0127*

  

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0255/01

by Lord Inglewood (PPE-DE) to the Council

(14 February 2001)

Subject: Right of Resale

Does the Council envisage the establishment of a centralised European register of all qualifying artists and their heirs under the draft Directive? If not, how are the natural or legal persons referred to in Article 9 supposed to determine the rights to a work in the event of a claim from two or more persons from outside the jurisdiction of the Member State concerned?

Joint answer to Written Questions E-0125/01 and E-0255/01

(14 May 2001)

1. The Council considers that Article 295 ECT which provides that the Treaty shall in no way prejudice the rules in Member States governing the system of property ownership, is an exception provision in the form of a genuine reservation of sovereignty. Like all exceptions in Community law, Article 295 is strictly interpreted. Thus the Court of Justice has held that Article 295 permits the Community to adopt rules about the disposal or use of property rights including the exercise of national intellectual property rights. In particular the Court of Justice has held that the Community rules on competition, which do not allow the improper use of rights under national trade-mark law in order to frustrate the Community law on cartels, are compatible with Article 295(1).

Likewise the Council considers that the proposed Directive on the resale right for the benefit of the author of an original work of art is compatible with Article 295 of the EC Treaty inasmuch as its purpose is to approximate national provisions in order to eliminate inter alia distortions of competition within the internal market and in order to allow the artist's resale right to be exercised without discrimination on the grounds of nationality.

2. With regard to the question of the establishment of a centralised European register the Council would point out that the Commission has not included in its proposal for a Directive on the resale right for the benefit of the author of an original work of art any proposal concerning a register of the nature mentioned by the Honourable Member, nor has the European Parliament proposed any amendment to this effect at either first or second reading.

Finally the Council would remind the Honourable Member that it is not the role of a Community Directive to lay down the details of how its provisions are to be implemented.

(1) Judgment of 13 July 1966, Consten and Grundig v. Commission, Joined Cases 56 and 58/64, ECR p. 299.

[Top](#document1)