Lobbying:  The EFJ office with the LAREG and the FREG shall lobby on key changes or proposals on employment law/union rights at European and national level.

Transnational work: The EFJ in cooperation with the LAREG shall concentrate on union organisation through union presence/recruitment/retention/work place organisation and cross-border organisation, including European Works Councils with the follow-up of the Sofia Conference in 2007 and International Framework Agreements.

Collective Bargaining and Best Practice: The EFJ secretariat and the LAREG shall keep monitoring and evaluating collective bargaining at national level and circulate essential information to all unions in Europe.

 

With regard to the crisis in the employment relationship and the increase of non permanent work, especially among the young, cooperation shall be found with the FREG and Labour Law Experts on this issue.

 

Union Organising: The EFJ office and the Labour Rights Expert Group and the Freelance Expert Group shall organise a follow-up seminar to the “Let’s Organise” seminar in Vilnius, November 2006 dealing with recruitment and bargaining issues.

 

Lobbying: The EFJ office and its national member unions in co-operation with the FREG shall continue to co-operate with the ETUC, the European Parliament and the European Commission to lobby for basic regulation on social protection. Following the debate initiated by the Green Paper on Labour Law, the FREG will follow-up the topic of ‘flexi-curity’ and continue to advocate for social rights for all workers independent of their contract.

 

The fight against unfair rules and legislations shall be the other main item to promote.  The FREG and the EFJ labour rights experts group (LAREG) and other trade union federations shall continue to work on this issue.

 

Activities: The EFJ office and the FREG shall organise another Seminar following-up the Conference that took place in Bratislava in 2005.

 

The EFJ office and the FREG shall follow-up on the freelance strategy circulated to member unions as well as best practices of successful freelance work.

 

The FREG shall intensify contact with freelance groups from Central and Eastern Europe.

 

The FREG, together with EFJ affiliates, shall promote and circulate the EFJ Charter of Freelance Rights.

 

Co-operation: The EFJ office and the FREG shall continue to co-operate with other unions representing freelances.

The FREG shall closely co-operate with the AREG on defending authors’ rights for freelances and work against unfair contracts such as “total buy out” practices.

 

Lobbying: AREG shall lobby wherever necessary and relevant against statutory transfer of authors’ rights along the lines of the “work for hire” system of the US and the similar UK system. Following up on the pamphlet with more translations and more material, AREG will further raise awareness regarding the negative consequences it will have if continental Europe adopts rules shifting full ownership of rights to the employer.

 

AREG and the EFJ office shall lobby the EU institutions to promote the continental authors’ right approach and make sure that the anglosaxon copyright approach does not gain weight within the EU. In this respect, AREG will continue to gather examples of the economic importance of journalists and their media colleagues to retain their authors’ rights and of the importance of moral rights protection. AREG will also follow up on the EU Commission studies on the recasting of copyright and related rights and on the implementation of the InfoSoc directive.

 

AREG shall put forward concrete suggestions for the EU Commission to enable it, through a charter, to pave the way for better contractual practices and more transparency and accountability in the cases where publishers and producers have acquired all the rights from journalists and other authors and performers.

 

AREG shall comment and follow closely the work of the EU Commission regarding authors’ rights in the online environment (copyright levies, content online, collective management, digital libaries) to make sure that the story is also told from the authors’ point of view and that journalists receive their fair share of remuneration for the use of digital or digitalised content. AREG shall also continue the efforts through the International Federation of Reproduction Rights Organisations (IFRRO) to spread collective management to the online environment.

 

AREG shall develop a joint project with WIPO on guidelines on the management of journalists’ authors rights to be used in development work (possible joint venture with IFRRO)

 

AREG shall monitor and - if relevant - participate in authors’ rights related activities of the European institutions and WIPO and other relevant bodies.

 

Solidarity: AREG shall help member unions to fight for the rights of employed authors and freelances by sharing information on best practice, disseminating lobbying material (pamphlet) and offering the official EFJ support. AREG will notably committ to strengthen its links with Central and Eastern Europe unions.

 

Cooperation with EFJ expert groups: AREG shall work closely with FREG and LAREG regarding collective bargaining rights for freelances (of all types) and for the strengthening of the rights of individuals in the contract situation This includes the organisation of joint-seminars.

 

Cooperation with other creators: AREG shall strengthen and continue efforts to drive and participate in better co-operation between authors’ and performers’ organizations in Europe and the rest of the world by participating actively in the initiatives taken by other organizations and to continue the EFJ initiatives in “Creators’ Forum“ and in the authors coalition within International Federation of Reproduction Rights Organisations (IFRRO).

 

Raising awareness: AREG and the EFJ office shall continue to inform member unions through the production of brochures, arguments, and training material and the organisation of seminars and other activities to raise member unions’ awareness of the importance of authors’ rights.

 

AREG shall continue to service member unions through the ongoing work of building up the website with useful information, including an updated handbook, collections of best practice contracts, collective agreements, cases, information on EU, WIPO, etc.

Strategy: The EFJ and the Gender Council will focus on mainstreaming strategies to be used by EFJ bodies including its expert groups and at EFJ seminars.

Communication: The EFJ and its members will make sure the survey finalised in 2006 is available on member unions’ website and broadly circulated. The Steering Committee shall follow-up the proposals from the survey, such as the support of a woman network  and implement them, where possible with similar methods.

Lobbying: The BREG shall develop lobbying activities at EU level on issues dealing with broadcasting in a broad extent: public service values, media pluralism and better regulations against media concentration. Lobbying is carried out by the EFJ at European level and by member unions at national level.

A special focus shall be put on political independence and public service values in Central Europe, where the situation of journalists and their unions is still unsatisfactory.

 

Social Dialogue: The SC will support the social dialogue in the audiovisual sector at European level, which was launched in 2004. Together with UNI-MEI and the Actors’ and Musicians Unions (FIA and FIM) the EFJ will discuss with representatives from the private and public broadcasting organisations (ACT and EBU) and independent producers issues relating to gender, safety, training as well as the development in new EU member states. The activities related to the Social Dialogue have the financial support of the European Commission.

In addition to national agreements and the European social dialogue, the BREG shall work on the development of International Framework Agreements in transnational broadcasting companies.

 

Support: EFJ member unions shall inform BREG and the EFJ/IFJ secretariat of activities and developments in broadcasting.

 

The BREG together with the secretariat shall look into the organisation of a conference focusing on working conditions in broadcasting.

 

Awareness-raising: The EFJ in co-operation with the IFJ shall continue to take every opportunity to lobby governments, the judiciary and the European Parliament and work with employers and their organisations to strengthen the rights and freedom of journalists to investigate, without judicial pressure to reveal their sources and reinforce the Europe-wide efforts involving all its affiliates to strengthen existing, or bring in new legislation in support for journalists protecting confidential sources.

 

Support: The EFJ and its member unions shall continue to give support to journalists who are asked to disclose their sources.

 

Information: EFJ member unions shall inform the EFJ/IFJ secretariat of relevant protection of sources cases in their countries. Information shall be put on the EFJ/IFJ web-site.

 

The Steering Committee shall continue working on standards for quality in journalism on issues such as training, access to the profession, citizens’ contribution to media, etc.