At an event at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, organised by the political group Volt and the Innovation Law and Ethics Observatory (ILEO, Luiss University), KR21 was able to share the perspectives of libraries and the researchers we support, and how the EU can make a real difference in fostering access to knowledge and supporting digital innovation.
Libraries and Research at the Heart of EU Digital Policy
The laws that the European Union has in place today are too often not designed with the needs of research in mind. This situation is made worse by the slow pace of efforts to adapt them to the digital age, leading to a gradual weakening of the position of libraries and other institutions that support research and other key public policy goals such as education, innovation, and democratic participation.
MEPs Call for Balance Between Innovation, Access, and Creator Incentives
MEP Damian Boeselager chaired the event, underlining the key role of knowledge in any meaningful competitiveness agenda. In this, it was key to maintain both access and incentives for creators, rescuing Europe from a situation that had been skewed by legacy business models. MEP Reinier van Lanschot stressed the need for ambition, and MEP Nela Riehl underlined the importance of making sure that laws worked for people working with knowledge, such as teachers and academic professionals and the increasing impact of restrictive copyright regimes.
Academic Experts Call for Knowledge-Centric Legal Reform
Professor Christophe Geiger (ILEO) introduced the debate, highlighting the need to place knowledge at the centre of policy discussions. It was necessary to restore some of the balance that had been lost over the past decades, with the transition to digital.
Dr Giulia Dore (University of Trento) presented the concept of Secondary Publication Rights as a straightforward step that the EU could take to free up publicly funded research for further reuse, in line with the objective of the public investment in it. Crucially, it would help address the imbalance in relations between researchers and publishers and support open access goals.
Professor Martin Sentfleben (IViR – Institute for Information Law, University of Amsterdam) underlined the challenge created by the failure to update exceptions for the digital age, creating confusion. Crucially, this confusion then had a chilling effect on research institutions, leading them to be cautious in what they did, holding back progress. Dr Justin Jütte (Sutherland School of Law, UCD Dublin & ILEO) echoed this point, noting how education exceptions were not only incomplete, but needed to be clearly understood as allowing for access rights and digital use by educators and learners.
From Contracts to Copyright: How Research is Being Undermined
Professor Thomas Margoni (CiTiP, KU Leuven) built on these points, stressing that in effect we had seen a deregulation by stealth of knowledge markets, with contracts replacing law, and legal guarantees replaced by a test of negotiating strength that research institutions were too likely to lose, especially in the context of academic publishing and access to scientific data.
Professor Frédérique Berrot, President of the University of Strasbourg, gave a clear explanation of the risks to freedom of scientific research from obstacles to access to knowledge and data. This access is getting more and more difficult and expensive, and laws remain too complicated. It is time to ensure that research and other public interest institutions benefit from a recognised status in working around copyright that would better enable them to fulfil their missions in the public interest.
A Practical Path Forward: Digital Knowledge Act and the Fifth Freedom
Dr Teresa Nobre of Communia presented their Digital Knowledge Act, which pulls together practical steps that the EU could take to improve access to and sharing of knowledge. Proposals included protecting research institutions, introducing a broader, more flexible research exception, ensuring that licences cannot override exceptions, and offering limitations on liabilities as a way of dealing with the chilling effect of uncertainty.
KR21’s intervention focused on what MEPs need to do to achieve the goal of a fifth freedom, as proposed by Enrico Letta. A first step is simply to clean up existing legislation, which contains major contradictions. For example, while the EU invests billions in supporting research-industry collaborations, copyright law only complicates this by imposing unnecessary legal uncertainty and barriers.
A second step is to drive forward legislation that places research at the centre of concerns. This would not only offer simplification, but also recognise the unique role of libraries and research institutions in delivering public interest goals.
Finally, it is key to start work already on this, with legislation already on the table. Looking beyond AI, plans are already underway around consumer protection, innovation, data and more. We can not miss this opportunity to do things better and put research and education at the heart of digital policy.
In concluding, MEP Damian Boeslager highlighted the parallels between the idea of a Digital Knowledge Act and work around a Digital Democracy Act promoted by Volt, and offered encouragement in moving forward advocacy around this: it is time to be ambitious!
Event photo by MEP Reinier van Lanschot
23 July 2025
