Information about the upcoming reform of the Digital Single Market is leaking from the European Commission, which is now working on a strategy document that they plan to release before summer.

The Commission is clearly focusing on measures to promote economic growth. The information that has so far gotten out does not address the issue of copyright exceptions, but it does say a few words about other priorities of ours like open data.

In the context of digitization and data-based business, the Commission views it as a problem that not more statistics and other data is in the public domain. They are also considering how to promote the further development toward open science, where a key element is the open access to publications and research data through new business models in the publishing world.

This could be good news. Perhaps it's a sign that the Public Sector Information Directive may be up for review and ultimately strengthened to allow for more and easier access to publicly funded information.

The Commission's ideas are at this stage quite vague. We will of course be there to help with suggestions on how to turn the ideas into concrete policy.

Best regards, Karl