European musicians could enjoy the rewards from their work for many more years under plans to extend performers' copyright protection from 50 to 95 years.

Charlie McCreevy, internal markets commissioner, said yesterday that he intended to propose an extension to the protection enjoyed by performers - a move that would bring Europe into line with the US. "I have not seen a convincing reason that a composer of music should benefit from a term of copyright which extends to the composer's life and 70 years beyond, while the performer should only enjoy 50 years, often not even covering his lifetime," he said.