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PRESS RELEASES AND ARTICLES - Archives
November 2004
ANTWERP CONFERENCE: CO-OPERATION IS THE MAIN LESSON
About 70 participants were present at the “Get caught reading –
Europe” conference organised on 7 & 8 November by the European
Booksellers Federation and in partnership with other
stakeholders in the book trade.
Mark Harrison, creative director for the arts at the BBC and
Executive Producer of “The Big read” was the main speaker of the
opening session and explained how, in his experience, TV was a
great ally of books, and not an enemy.
Participants subsequently joined different workshops on “The
Fight against illiteracy”, “Innovative elements in reading
campaigns”, “Books in the media”, “Do literary prizes help?”
On Sunday night the guests enjoyed a delightful sample of
Belgian creative cuisine in the magnificent old reception room
of Elzenveld, a former hospital totally refurbished and now the
property of the city of Antwerp. The event was sponsored by
Stichting Lezen (Foundation for reading), the Flemish
Booksellers Association and Boek.be (The house of the book).
Everyone was in very good form for joining workshops again on
Monday morning before attending the final plenary session. The
closing session was honoured by the presence of Bart Moeyaert,
Flemish writer, who entertained the audience with “7 little
stories” on the theme of accessibility to books and reading…
The full report of the conference, workshops reports as well as
the speakers’ presentations will be available on the EBF website
in the following weeks.
As Doris Stockmann, EBF President, said in her concluding
speech: “Participants have exchanged ideas and experiences. Each
of you is hopefully going home with one or two ideas that he or
she can apply at home. This is further evidence that
co-operation between the different stakeholders in the book
trade, who were present at the conference, does work and is a
must.”
For more information, please contact EBF:
frandubruille.eurobooks@skynet.be
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June 2004
EBF President got interviewed by "El Pais" at the Book Fair in Madrid (article in Spanish)
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Don't tax reading.
"No a los impuestos a la lectura". Es el lema de la
Federación Europea de Libreros (EBF). Su presidenta, la finlandesa Doris
Stockmann, ha estado en Madrid, visitando la Feria del Libro. "Es una buena
experiencia para la promoción de la lectura. Que esté en un parque y que se
dedique a Europa y a los niños es bueno y no habitual", afirmó. "El IVA aplicado
a los libros en los Estados miembros de la Unión Europea varía entre el 0% y el
25%", explicó. El recomendado es el 5%. Tres de los nuevos miembros incorporados
a la UE llegan con el IVA cero: Chipre, Lituania y Estonia. Chipre ya ha
declarado que impondrá el IVA del 5% en los libros. La federación es consciente
de que el nuevo impuesto puede afectar al sector del libro en dichos países. May 2004
Booksellers and their friends in the book trade had a ball in Killarney !Pictures of the conference in the "Events" section.
 Some of the participants on their way to Beaufort House on 7 May |
The
biggest ever European and International Booksellers Federations conference took
place in Ireland
at the Great Southern Hotel in Killarney from Thursday 6th to Saturday 8th May 2004.
With 75 delegates attending from Ireland and all
over Europe and from
as far away as
Africa and China the conference was a very important mark on the Booksellers calendar following
the accession of ten new Member States of the E.U. last weekend.
Entitled ‘Small and Successful’, the conference aimed at informing and inspiring participants on
key issues in the book trade. The 2004 conference, jointly organised by the
European Booksellers Federation and the International Booksellers Federation,
explored 1001 ways of being ‘Small AND successful…’. The Congress also
provided participants with the opportunity to thank Jochen Groenke,
Director of the German Booksellers Association, Boersenverein, for his huge
contribution to the book trade over the last 25 years. Jochen served as an EBF
Executive Committee Member and as an IBF Council Member for most of his career
in the book trade. Jochen has now
retired and all participants wished him a well-deserved and happy retirement.
Participants expressed their profound satisfaction at a vibrant event, organized with the
excellent collaboration of the Irish branch of the Booksellers Association of
the U.K. and Ireland. A special and warm thank you goes to Geraldine
O’ Dea, the President of the Irish branch, and to John Mc Namee,
whose first-class collaboration with EBF Secretariat ahead of the conference
was highly efficient. As regards the professional experience and the usefulness of such
an event in their daily business life, participants expressed the
view that the conference was an excellent learning experience, and
that they were going back home with new ideas or hints to make their
business more interesting or successful.
Commented Juancho Pons, bookseller in Zaragoza, and from the Spanish B.A, CEGAL: “All
the presentations were very good and interesting, the number of participants
grew, the Irish Mist (that atmosphere only an Irish person is able to create
and which makes you feel so good you feel like you are in your own home
wherever you are), the great food and even better drinks... have made this one
of the best Conferences that I have ever been to, if not the best”
Here below, a selection among the many messages sent to EBF/IBF Secretariat:
Francis Bennett, Nielsen Book Data, U.K.: “What a conference! I don't think I have every attended a happier conference in my life. It was quite brilliantly organised - and was enormous fun and it was, of course, tremendously useful. I cannot thank you enough for letting me speak at the conference - it was an great privilege to be there, among such a wonderful group of people.”
Inara Belinkaja, bookseller in Riga and from the Latvian B.A: “I am very happy to tell you the very best thanks for the nice days we have spent in the Ireland. This will stay for a long time in our memory. It was a beautiful opportunity to meet such interesting people and to listen to many interesting and useful things. And I see a very long future for our organisations, because there are still a lot questions to be solved and cleared, which are common to all of us.”Brussels, 13 May 2004
For more information, contact: EBF President–- Doris Stockmann: doris.stockmann@pp.inet.fi IBF President –- Eric Hardin: hardin@pave.fr EBF/IBF Secretariat – Fran Dubruille: frandubruille.eurobooks@skynet.beClick here to access the press release in a word document format
23 April 2004
Download the World Book Day
logo 
Final report on cultural industries by MEP Zorba
May 2003
Bookselling in the enlarged European Union: challenges and prospects
April 2003
RESOLUTION ADOPTED IN ATHENS BY THE CONFERENCE
"What Future for European Books?"
March 2003
THE CHALLENGES FOR THE BOOK TRADE
ELECTION OF A NEW EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
At its General Meeting in St Petersburg on the 7th June, the European Booksellers Federation elected a new Executive Committee for a new 3-year mandate.
Doris Stockmann, from Finland, EBF President since 1999, was unanimously re-elected as EBF President till 2004.
After her business studies in Helsinki (the Swedish School of Business Administration) and New York (Columbia University) and a teaching position at the Swedish School of Business Administration, Doris Stockmann worked in different leading positions at Akateeminen Kirjakauppa (the Academic Bookstore) in Finland since 1969 where she was manager from 1990 - 1998. She has long years of experience in the book trade as board Member of different publishing and bookselling houses and as chairperson of the Finnish Booksellers Association, and the Finnish Foundation for Booksellers.
EBF is extremely pleased to welcome a new Executive Committee Member, Juancho Pons, from Spain. Juancho is running a family bookshop together with his parents. The bookshop, situated in Zaragoza, celebrated its 50th anniversary last year. Juancho is 29 years old and has wanted to be a bookseller since he was a child.
The Executive Committee of EBF is now composed as follows:
Doris Stockmann, President
Klaus Vorpahl, Vice President (Buchhandlung Baersch, Frankfurt, Germany)
Ari Doeser (Nederlandse Boekverkopersbond, The Netherlands)
Tim Godfray (The Booksellers Association of the United Kingdom and Ireland)
Jochen Grönke (Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels, Germany)
Juancho Pons (Libreria Pons, Zaragoza, Spain)
Yvonne Steinberger ( The Vlaamse Boekverkopersbond and IBF, Belgium)
Olaf Winslöw (Den danske Boghandlerforening, Denmark)
Fran Dubruille, Director, and Christiane Vuidar, Office Manager operate EBF Secretariat in Brussels.
A MUCH- APPRECIATED BOOKSELLERS' GET- TOGETHER
In addition to the General Meeting, The European Booksellers Federation and the International Booksellers Federation held a two-day joint professional conference organised in collaboration with the Book Distributors of Independent States.
Definitely future-orientated, the congress dealt with themes like "the changes in the book trade and how to cope with them" or "survival strategies for independent bookstores", or else "the globalisation of the book market". The event involved more than 80 participants, including a large Russian delegation and delegates from National Booksellers Associations as well as individual bookseller Members.
Marina Kameneva, President of the Russian B.A.: "The professional programme was quite rich. There is no doubt every participant found something useful for his own business. This is important as it is the first time Russia has taken part in the discussion of professional problems at the international level."
Sandra Vlasta, delegate of the International Congress of Young Booksellers (ICYB), Austria: "I really enjoyed the congress. The professional programme was very informative. I got a lot of new interesting ideas. I also enjoyed the visit to the bookshops though unfortunately we did not have enough time..."
Mats Gyllengahm, speaker, from the independent BOKIA bookshops chain, Sweden: " I must say I was surprised and satisfied by the Congress. I was glad to meet so many people with open minds, ready to share their professional experience..."
Tim Godfray, Chief Executive Officer of the Booksellers Association of the United Kingdom and Ireland: "Very many thanks for all your hard work in helping to put together the recent EBF General Assembly in St Petersburg. I very much enjoyed the long weekend. Having had myself to organize the occasional conference over the years I know only too well all the work that is involved"
Rodrigo Dias, President of Associazione Librai Italiani, Italy: "I think the congress was very good. To my mind the programme was very informative and it is possible to make practical use of all the presentations.... The city is very impressive, I enjoyed sightseeing very much."
Nina Belikova, Bookshop "Molodaya Gvardia", Moscow, Russia: "This is the second time I have taken part in a congress of this kind. It seems to me that the Russian B.A. managed to organize it an a proper way... Some of the reports were very interesting. It was also nice that Russian colleagues got an opportunity to discuss the reports informally. This made me think of organizing local meetings here in Russia for our booksellers."