Ladies and gentlemen!

I am very pleased to welcome you to the fifth international conference on public lending right. It is eight years since the first conference was held in the United Kingdom, in 1995. Since then the number of countries interested in this field has grown. We are particularly happy to welcome representatives from Baltic States here to-day.

Books are of central importance in our lives. That is why books hold their position in our increasingly hyper-linked society. Books are a defining element in our human lives. Therefore we cherish both access to books already written, and welcome new books on the stand. This is our reason to maintain our libraries, and increasingly implement and refine ways to compensate our authors.

The Norwegian Public Lending Right (PLR) system was established by law in 1956, and is today regulated by the Law on Public Lending passed by the Norwegian Parliament in 1987. According to the law, the size of the compensation is settled by negotiations between the government and an elected committee representing the rights holders' organisations.

Negotiations have been conducted since 1978, and agreements must be accepted by the Parliament. The compensation is paid collectively to 16 funds managed by the rights holders' organizations, according to agreement between the organisations.

The money is not tied to the actual rate of lending of specific books, but calculated from annual library statistics on available stock. The payments have increased, and last year the total was well over 61 million Norwegian kroner, almost 8,2 million euros. The Norwegian PLR scheme is intended to stimulate writing in Norwegian. Compensation for the public lending of the works of foreign writers is not yet on the agenda.

Our scheme differs from other countries. I understand that different approaches to PLR schemes are one of the topics for discussion in this and previous conferences. The Norwegian scheme has a nice democratic ring to it, and should be looked upon as an important element in our cultural policy.

The Norwegian PLR scheme must be viewed in context with our Purchasing Programme for Contemporary fiction, poetry, non-fiction and essays, and translations, which has been in operation since 1965. The programme is managed by the Norwegian Council for Cultural Affairs, and guarantees the publishers a sale of a certain minimum number of copies of each book published. The books are then distributed as gifts to the public libraries, and to libraries in primary schools.

The program has broad support. Two recent evaluation reports conclude that it has produced an expansion of the markets for books and literature in Norway. Because of a small and scattered population, and because we have three official languages in Norway, full-scale national book production would be impossible if the market should rule alone. The purchasing program is a way to secure broad and vital contemporary literature for children, young people and adults. In 2002 the programme spent almost 66 million kroner, or 8,8 million euros on contemporary literature.

Financially you might say that our policy on literature and libraries is expenses that lead to other expenses. This is, however, in line with Norwegian cultural policy principles, namely:

• to stimulate growth of quality Norwegian literature being written;
• to stimulate reading of quality literature; and
• to compensate the authors for the public use of their works.

The appreciation of authors is also present in the European Council Directive adopted in 1992. The directive requires that the authors of books, films and any other copyright works, either have the right to authorise or refuse lending of their works, or that they be compensated for such public lending. Of course, several countries both within and outside the European Union cannot be said to comply with the intention expressed in this directive. However, the global participation in this conference shows increasing support for the importance of PLR schemes worldwide.

It is my hope that the meetings during these two days will stimulate an even broader understanding of PLR schemes in our countries respectively, and perhaps in the future, in all countries.

Again, I wish you all welcome, and the best for the conference. Thank you.