PLR plan plagued by delays

France's long-awaited public lending right scheme is likely to be delayed until after the country's general election takes place in the spring.

Culture minister Catherine Tasca finally unveiled details of a proposed PLR plan, after years of haggling and hesitation by successive governments. But parliament is unlikely to vote on a draft bill before a new government takes office.

Serge Eyrolles, president of the French Publishers Association (Syndicat National de l'Edition), said: "Political priorities are [now] elsewhere—each day that passes reduces the likelihood that the public lending right will be introduced." Although it failed fully to meet publishers' demands, Mr Eyrolles said that the minister's proposal showed "a certain balance between" all concerned.

The proposed Fr146m (£14m) scheme, to be phased in over two years, would benefit authors and publishers equally, with the remaining funds going to a top-up pension fund for authors and translators. Wholesalers and bookshops would contribute 6% of their library sales to authors' collection societies, while the government would put up €1.5 (94p) for each public library subscriber and €1 (63p) for each university library borrower.

The bill would cap discounts on bulk book sales at 12% of the fixed price for the first year and 9% thereafter. Book sales to schools and libraries have until now escaped the Lang Law's discount ceiling of 5%.

Behind the plan is a 1992 European directive ordering EU countries to pay authors for library book loans. The number of books borrowed in France has soared during the past two decades.