“Without books, there would be no technological development and no digitisation.”

On Wednesday, 13 September 2023, MEP Irena Joveva addressed the European Parliament during the Strasbourg plenary on the future of the book sector. As she said, “without books, there would be no technological development and no digitisation, two major threats to the book sector today”. And this is not due to the existence of digital books, but rather the widespread availability of video content which is causing a decline in the reading culture.

The MEP began by saying that without books, we would not know about our history, there would be no social progress, revolutions, research or innovation. Ironically, without books, there would be neither technological development nor digitisation, which pose the biggest threat to the book sector today.

“Not only from the point of view of the existence of new book formats, which may in the future come to completely replace printed books – though I hope not – but primarily from the point of view of the constant availability of video content, which has recently been causing a decline in the reading culture, especially among young people.”

We need to make reading more attractive and shift the focus from screens (back) to books, she continued. ” The book sector’s biggest threat is not economic or technological, but rather the decline in readership,” she explained, adding that without the latter, any help and efforts to ensure the sustainable development of the sector will unfortunately be irrelevant.

You can watch the MEP’s speech here.