Blog post by Stephen Wyber
As of 1 January, Cyprus took up the Presidency of the European Union’s Council of Ministers for six months.
As the chair of hundreds of meetings – formal and informal, of officials and ministers – the role of the presidency is largely about advancing existing dossiers, working to get as close to possible to consensus among Member States.
As the chair of hundreds of meetings – formal and informal, of officials and ministers – the role of the presidency is largely about advancing existing dossiers, working to get as close as possible to consensus among Member States.
At the same time, there remain strong possibilities to prioritise dossiers and put key issues on the agenda, in particular through Council Conclusions, discussions in meetings and working groups, and events.
The Cypriot Presidency is of particular interest as work picks up speed in key areas for the research, education and cultural sectors, and the libraries that serve them.
Marking the launch of the Presidency, this blog looks at the very positive overall themes Cyprus has chosen, what opportunities there are in its official Programme, and what success could look like from the perspective of access to research, education and culture.
Building Autonomy Through Openness in Education, Research and Culture
Our hope is that Cyprus will be ready to use the opportunities it has to advance a Europe that can promote access to research, education and culture as drivers of competitiveness, inclusion and the fulfilment of rights.
A key positive sign is the choice of autonomy and openness as crucial themes for the Presidency as a whole.
Concerning autonomy, alongside other like-minded organisations, we have consistently made the case for initiatives–in legislation and practice–that will better support Europe to maintain its competitiveness and ability to meet its citizens’ needs.
In short, we cannot afford to maintain barriers to research, education, cultural participation, and more broadly to the fifth freedom: the free circulation of knowledge.
This goes hand-in-hand with openness (and in particular Open Science), recognising that this is not only a way of making it easier for more people, institutions and countries to participate in and benefit from scientific advancements and learning, but also of accelerating them.
Indeed, it is a point made clearly right at the end of last year by the European Open Science Cloud Steering Board Expert Group, arguing that openness and sovereignty (and so also autonomy) can and should be pursued in parallel.
On the Agenda
What can we take from the Priorities and Programme released ahead of the mandate?
Admittedly, the most positive aspect of the Priorities document is the overall theme. Neither research nor culture get an explicit mention, although education and innovation do. In terms of innovation, there is the risk of continuing to neglect that so much downstream innovation by companies is driven by upstream research in universities and beyond. Without properly supporting the systems, ecologies, and laws that facilitate public-private collaborations, we will continue to underperform at translating scientific advancements into commercial innovation, thus perpetuating the Innovation Paradox.
There is more in the fuller Programme however than the Priorities document, and we have identified below those items that offer opportunities to address KR21’s concerns.
Item #1: A Single Market for Knowledge
On research, Cyprus’ priorities as a ‘widening’ country are clear (i.e. one that has lower participation and performance in EU Research and Innovation programmes, usually in Central, Eastern or Southern Europe) – it argues for a strong place for efforts to reduce innovation gaps and deeper Single Market integration.
As we have argued, pro-Open Science reforms can indeed help in this respect, offering key backstops and guarantees for smaller and less well resourced institutions, as well as realising the benefits of collective action. They are also needed to overcome the barriers and unevenness that hold back the delivery of the fifth freedom.
Item #2: Maximising the impact of research spending
The Presidency will also take forward discussions around the Horizon Europe programme for 2028-2034, with a focus on simplification and supporting knowledge transfer. In parallel, the Presidency favours steps that will favour the growth of start-ups and SMEs.
Here too, reforms to copyright and information law and policy stand to help. We will be paying close attention to provisions around openness in Horizon Europe, but also see opportunities through the Digital Omnibus to maximise the impact of EU spending on research through greater sharing of research results.
Item #3: Policy coherence for research
While it will not be published during this Presidency, much of the work towards the drafting of the European Research Area Act will also take place in the coming six months. This has the potential to refocus the EU’s acquis on the needs of researchers and research institutions.
Through its work, the Presidency can help identify priorities and ensure, in particular, that the Act does not shy away from addressing areas such as copyright and data law where such a refocusing is long overdue.
The Presidency also wants to focus more strongly on innovation ecosystems, including through the implementation of the AI Continent Action Plan. Here too, the ambition must be to ensure that the EU’s copyright and data laws are aligned with its ambitions both to support AI research and the use of AI in science.
Item #4: Remembering the interests of knowledge users
Proposals on copyright are relatively high-level, with only a reference to a ‘robust’ framework, and a need to monitor developments linked to emerging technologies.
In the full Programme, the Digital Fairness Act is not mentioned as such, but rather hinted at through the New Consumer Agenda, as well as modernisation of competition frameworks to reflect market developments.
A key vulnerable group in this space is library users (i.e. “consumers”), who rely on institutions to be able to access research, education, and culture. However, with libraries currently left unprotected by consumer and competition laws, this is an important gap that the Cypriot Presidency could start to help close.
Conclusions
As a smaller country on the European Union’s geographical periphery, Cyprus brings a unique perspective to its Presidency. Guarantees of the free flow of knowledge, as well as the rights and missions of research, education, and cultural institutions, are strategic necessities.
Social cohesion and integration at European level require that peripheral countries be able to participate on equal terms with other Member States, and the discussion on a better framework and the implementation of the fifth freedom can begin under the Cyprus Presidency.
This perspective, coupled with the opportunities presented by the EU’s legislative and policy agenda over the next six months, creates a chance to make a real and positive difference. The opportunity to make a real difference is here, and KR21 is ready to help seize it.
7 January 2026
