VAPIK, the SAA's newest member in Kosovo, has just made its first payment to authors, 14 years after the fight began. SAA spoke to Lirak Celaj, the Operational Manager, and Blerim Gjoci, the Board President, old friends from film school now split between Pristina and Hollywood, about what it took to get to this point and what they are watching for next, as their industry is reshaped from both sides of the Atlantic.

Serbia gave the world 'Who's Singin' Over There?', still regularly voted the country's greatest film over 40 years after its 1980 premiere. Its director Slobodan Šijan is among the many authors whose works UFUS AFA Protection now protects. UFUS AFA is the SAA’s newest member, having joined in 2024. I spoke to Stefan Gelineo, UFUS AFA’s Director, and their lawyer Stevan Pajović to find out more about their work.

For a long time, the Polish film community mobilised to get royalties for on-demand and online use of their works. Together with young filmmakers, ZAPA was at the forefront of this success. I connected with Dominik Skoczek, ZAPA’s Managing Director, from his office in Warsaw to speak about his work and the Polish EU Presidency that started on 1st January. A sports injury prevented him from attending the last SAA Board meeting in person. Besides football sneakers, Skoczek has stepped into many shoes duri

After the SAA members’ meeting in November, I had the pleasure of talking to our member FilmJUS, who had come to Brussels from Budapest. I sat down with László Czető Bernát (Vice President and SAA Patron), Dr Béla Bánhegyesi (CEO) and Dr Katalin Petróczy (Legal adviser) to learn about their work for authors’ rights in Hungary.

Across the courtyard from the SAA in the European House of Authors, I see deAuteurs’ office. However, I rarely catch a glimpse of its CEO, Katrien van der Perre. When we finally caught up online, I quickly understood why. Katrien is not only the CEO of deAuteurs. She is also busy teaching copyright and media law at Ghent University and at the film school RITCS in Brussels, and a member of the Flemish Regulator of the Media.

In a bright office space on Rue des Deux Eglises in Brussels, sits SAA’s member Sabam. The building, designed by René Aerts and Paul Ramon, has a facade of windows shaped as vintage television screens, making every view a different TV-programme. We met with the CEO Steven De Keyser to learn more about Sabam’s work for audiovisual authors.

Spain is one of the countries with the largest number of UNESCO world heritage sites, highest life expectancy and most widely spoken language. It is also one of the countries with the oldest collective management organisation, created more than 100 years ago. I met with Cristina Perpiñá-Robert who recently returned to SGAE as General Manager. We talked about SGAE’s work and expectations on the Spanish EU Presidency.

On 1 January Sweden took over the Presidency of the Council of the EU. Despite being one of the largest countries with one of the lowest populations per square kilometer in all of Europe, it is the home to Greta Thunberg, Alfred Nobel, Ingmar Bergman, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, ABBA and many more. I talked to Mattias Åkerlind, CEO of Copyswede, from a cold Stockholm.

The Czech Republic, known for its top-ranking female tennis players, the world’s first robot, and it’s 2,000 castles, is since 1 July holding the Presidency of the Council of the EU. I had a talk with Jan Barták, working for our Czech member DILIA about their work and expectations about the Presidency.

The 31 January 2020 marks the day when the UK left the EU. I called up our UK members Barbara Hayes, Deputy Chief Executive of Authors’ Licensing & Collecting Society (ALCS) and Andy Harrower, CEO of Directors UK to hear from them how Brexit impacted their work and authors’ rights in the UK.

On 1 January, the French Presidency of the Council of the EU began. Put aside the pandemic and the upcoming French elections, the expectation on the Presidency from creators and their representative organisations is still high as France was the very first country - decades before the rest of the world - to recognize authors’ sovereignty over their creative works.

You may know that on 1 July, Slovenia took over the Presidency of the Council of the EU. However, did you know that Slovenia is the home of 90,000 beekeepers, the oldest known musical instrument (a 60,000 years old ‘Neanderthal Flute’) and AIPA, the collective management organisation of authors, performers, and producers of audiovisual works of Slovenia.