European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso has decided to delay indefinitely a measure designed to phase out artistic copyright levies on private copying in the EU, a spokesperson said Wednesday.

The recommendation, which was to have been adopted next week, has been "postponed sine die" on Barroso's instruction, the spokesperson said.

The decision comes a week after Barroso received a letter on the matter from the French prime minister.

In that letter, Dominique de Villepin urged the Commission, the EU's executive arm, to defer the adoption of the text so as to allow "a real debate" on the issue among member states.

The great majority of EU states -- with the exception of Britain where private copying is banned -- allow copying for family use, with a levy for authors included in the price of CDs, DVDs or music players and some kinds of electronic scanners and printers used for copying music, films, books etc.

In October 2005, Internal Market Commissioner Charlie McCreevy announced that he hoped to ease that system, which he said hampered the smooth running of the internal market.

However de Villepin argued in his letter that the "remuneration represents for the creators a significant source of revenue which should be preserved".

After a year of work, a non-binding recommendation was drawn up by the Commission that could be cited in a court of law as an indication of how European law should be interpreted.

Technology companies decried Barroso's move.

The Copyright Levies Reform Alliance (CLRA), an alliance of technology companies promoting the reform of copyright levies in the European Union, expressed dismay at the "decision to bury European Commission legislation" due to be adopted on December 20.

"It is unclear why the Commission President decided this week to pull the plug on one of the key EU initiatives aimed at improving the competitiveness of the European economy and creating growth and jobs," the group said in a statement.

Mark MacGann, CLRA spokesperson and Director General of European digital technology industry group EICTA, said: "European industry is deeply disturbed by the European Commission's apparent about-face on the planned reform of copyright levies. It seems the Commission has chosen to drop the recommendation on levies that was due to be adopted next week following eleventh hour interference from France.

"With this decision, it is clear to industry that the Commission has abandoned any serious efforts to establish transparency, efficiency and fairness in the way these levies are set, collected and distributed," he added