The 2019 Copyright Directive under review

In past years, we have written extensively about the state of play of the Copyright in the Digital Single Market Directive and its provisions supporting the digitisation and dissemination of cultural heritage.

For example, we focused on the public domain, and on the preservation exception, which enables making copies of materials that are part of the collection of a cultural heritage institution (CHI) , through any means and without limitations on quantity, without the obligation to ask the rightsholder for permission. We also examined the out-of-commerce works provisions, under which a CHI can make available online copyright-protected materials that are part of their collections without asking rightsholders individually for permission, after following certain steps.

Furthermore, we told you how various countries in the EU were implementing these ‘legal permissions’ into their national law, for example, in Italy, Sweden and Lithuania.

As with all European Union Directives, there is a point in time at which their practical impact is analysed to evaluate whether their objectives are met. This is happening now, starting with a review of the Directive by an external consultant, Verian Group together with two more partners. The review includes a survey that closes on 14 June 2026. Based on the findings of the study, the European Commission departments overseeing the Directive will assess the need for potential legislative revisions.

Ever since the adoption of the Directive, we have been monitoring its implementation in practice, and we have observed that small legislative changes could lead to a much more efficient result. We believe that the review of the Directive offers a good opportunity for this, and that it is important that CHIs participate actively in the survey and interviews. We will share more information through Europeana channels when this is available, and have just published our position on how the Directive should change.

The Digital Omnibus for data

The European Commission has put forward a Digital Omnibus Proposal, a legislative initiative that compiles various legal provisions in a single instrument, for simplicity and effectiveness. For example, it integrates the Open Data Directive and the Data Governance Act into the Data Act.

An Omnibus should only lead to amendments of a technical nature, but the proposal makes substantial (and sometimes controversial) changes to various Directives and Regulations, like the General Data Protection Regulation.

The proposed changes that impact the cultural heritage sector most directly are brought to the Open Data Directive, namely by adding that it would be possible to charge higher fees to very large companies and to establish different data access and reuse conditions.

In the Open Data Directive, the general principle is that a public sector cultural heritage organisation should not charge any fees for accessing its documentation. If fees are charged, their calculation needs to be made transparent and needs to be justified on the cost of preparing the data for access. The Digital Omnibus Proposal takes a fundamentally different approach and states that ‘public sector bodies may set out higher charges for the re-use of data and documents by very large enterprises’ in a way that facilitates ‘a return on investment’. It also adds that they may establish ‘special conditions for the re-use of data and documents by very large enterprises’.

The Europeana Foundation submitted a response to the public consultation that was open until 13 March 2026. In this response:

• We indicated that we value the possibility of introducing higher fees for the reuse of data and documents by large companies, because these users have the means to ensure the financial sustainability of data stewards, but we believe that these fees should be charged for the provision of a service, for example, data prepared in bulk for AI training rather than for simply accessing data.
• We insisted on the need to safeguard open licensing and warned that introducing special conditions at the access level might interfere with efforts to make materials available under open licenses, such as Creative Commons licenses.
• We encouraged reviewing the rules governing exclusive arrangements, such as those applicable to the Google Books project. While a period of exclusivity might be necessary for companies to obtain a return on investment, and such investments are valuable to the cultural heritage sector, the period should be limited to the very strict minimum. Otherwise it gives an unintended advantage to a large market player, thus undermining some of the objectives of the Digital Omnibus proposal, and takes away valuable possibilities from society at large to use public sector data in specific contexts, e.g. commercial ones.

The proposal is now being reviewed at the European Parliament and the Council of the EU.

The Promise of the ERA Act

In the European Commission's Communication of January 29, 2025 – the 'EU Competitiveness Compass' – alongside further groundwork for the European Research Act, a clear strategy emerges. It seeks to bolster the Union's competitiveness by investing in research, aligning national laws, and fostering knowledge sharing and cross-border collaboration to ensure Europe remains a hub for pioneering scientific and technological breakthroughs.

The European Research Area (ERA) Act represents a strategic shift toward a unified ‘Fifth Freedom’ in Europe – the free movement of knowledge – which positions CHIs like libraries, archives, and museums as vital research infrastructures. Within the ERA Policy Agenda 2025-2027, these institutions are increasingly recognised not just as repositories, but as active nodes in the Open Science ecosystem, benefiting from proposed reforms such as Secondary Publication Rights. The ERA Act aims to bridge the gap between cultural preservation and technological innovation by fostering initiatives such as the common European data space for cultural heritage and the European Collaborative Cloud for Cultural Heritage (ECCCH) for the creation of a digital infrastructure connecting CHIs and professionals across the EU, and promoting cross-border cooperation. These efforts ensure that the Union's collective memory is fully accessible to cutting-edge scientific research and societal advancement.

You can read more about the copyright directive and copyright in general on the data space website. We encourage you to join the copyright community to hear more about these developments.