JOINSTM Chapter | Europe
The STM Europe group closely monitors developments in European Union legislation, sharing intelligence and coordinating activity of STM and its members specifically in Brussels. It is made up of STM staff and representatives of STM members who actively have presence in Brussels, ideally with expertise in lobbying and government relations. Meetings take place once per month.
The activity of the STM Europe group is in support of and complementary to that of the standing STM Committees and Forums. Learn more about how we are structured.
STM Europe provides recommendations on how to best broadcast the work of STM, discusses advocacy activities to implement in Brussels and creates opportunities for STM and its members to communicate on their key messages.
The latest policy updates from the EU
EU Commission seeks views on protocols for TDM rights reservation expression
The Code of Practice for General-Purpose AI models adopted this summer includes Measure 1.3 “Identify and comply with rights reservations when crawling the World Wide Web”. The EU Commission has now started a consultation (deadline 9 January 2026) on protocols that exist for expressing right reservations, which STM will respond to. The questionnaire includes several questions on the TDMRep…
Survey on Secondary Publication Right and research exception
As previously reported, the EU Commission is seeking the stakeholders’ views on potential changes at EU level on Secondary Publication Right and research exception from copyright. Because of the disappointing survey design, STM is drafting a critique letter, co-signed by other publishing organisations in Europe and globally, in addition to its survey responses. Thank you to all members…
Call to action: Survey on Secondary Publication Right and research exception
The EU Commission is considering legislative changes to the research exception from copyright and the introduction of a EU-wide Secondary Publication Right (self-archiving, potentially with zero embargo and extending to the VoR). They are analysing potential economic effects of such measures on publishers, and are collecting views through a survey through 1 December. It is very…
EU Commission launches public consultation on ERA Act
The European Commission is gathering stakeholder feedback on the upcoming European Research Area (ERA) Act, expected for Q3 2026, through a questionnaire open until 5 January 2026. Questions related to OA mandates and rights retention strategies are included under the section ‘Free circulation of scientific knowledge’, including the option ‘the applicable legal frameworks should be reviewed to improve legal…