Blog post by Stephen Wyber
Throughout the second half of 2026, Irish representatives will take charge of the vast majority of meetings of the European Union’s Member States. As usual, this presidency will be about advancing ongoing legislative agendas, but also offer opportunities to highlight particular national priorities and themes.
Over the next weeks, there will be lots of presentations of forward plans across different European Parliament committees as well as in different formations of the Council of Ministers. This article highlights those that are particularly relevant in Knowledge Rights 21’s areas of work, and some questions we hope we’ll see answered.
Maintaining the Legislative Momentum
The Presidency’s overall themes align well with the EU’s wider agenda at the moment, with a focus on competitiveness, values and security. Under the competitiveness pillar, it offers five building blocks – simplification, an integrated single market, championing trade, energy transition and digital and AI. All, again, are close to ongoing priorities.
A major cross-cutting issue will be progress towards agreement on the EU’s next Multiannual Financial Framework. This will be an intense discussion, given its impact on how much (or little) money is available to support research, agriculture, regional development and more. Conversations will, in particular, continue around the next version of Horizon Europe.
The Presidency takes on a busy legislative agenda, shaped to a large extent by the One Europe One Market agenda agreed earlier this year. This includes launching discussions on the European Research Area Act, with a view to achieving agreement by the end of 2027. For this, the Presidency sees as an objective “a fully functioning ERA that is attractive to global talent and maximises research impact.”
Other upcoming proposals include the European Innovation Act (focused on supporting innovative companies), and the Digital Fairness Act (focused on better consumer protection). The Presidency is also aiming to finalise the Digital Omnibus on Data, which incorporates the pre-existing Open Data Directive.
While no new copyright legislation is expected during this term, work is intensifying around the Intellectual Property Enforcement Directive, and the Presidency programme does highlight the ongoing review of the 2019 Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market.
AI continues to be a theme, with both legislation on the table (Cloud and AI Development Act), and a series of meetings around different aspects of AI, including a ‘Summit’ in October.
Building on Irish Experience
This agenda does create significant opportunities to improve conditions for research, education, and cultural participation, helping libraries and the communities they serve. Ireland has much valuable experience to bring to the table here. Three particular promising areas are:
A better deal for libraries when working with digital content: Ireland’s libraries have long highlighted the challenges they face when trying to build collections of eBooks for lending. Despite clear and strong public demand, they continue to face high prices, restrictive terms, and even the sudden disappearance of titles from collections. A high-ranking Irish MEP, Barry Andrews, has highlighted the issues in his article about ‘how big publishers are ripping off our public libraries’.
The Presidency can help address this through ensuring that libraries benefit from similar protections against unfair digital contract terms and practices in the upcoming Digital Fairness Act.
Guarantees of the accessibility of publicly funded research: Ireland has been a leader in recent years in advancing open science through the National Open Research Forum, with pioneering approaches to monitoring progress developed under the leadership of the Irish Research eLibrary. The SCOIR initiative has seen sound and evidence-based proposals made for a secondary publication right, as well as advances on rights retention.
Safeguard AI in Science: Irish librarians have, alongside colleagues from elsewhere in Europe, been pointing out the increasingly aggressive approach taken by publishers and vendors towards AI. Efforts to impose contract terms that directly contradict EU laws designed to enable AI training are increasingly common, putting libraries in a difficult situation.
7 July 2026
