How is Slovenia prepared for its EU Council Presidency?
In the second half of 2021, Slovenia will preside over the EU Council for the second time. This means that Slovenia will face tasks such as coordinating the EU Council, providing EU legislative guidance, and forming common positions of EU Council for discussions with the European Parliament and the European Commission. For this purpose, Slovenian, German and Portugese presidencies issued the 2021 Programme of the Council. Slovenia has evidently been preparing for its EU Council presidency, but what effect, if any, will this have on copyright regulation in the field of education?
In light of Slovenia’s EU Council presidency, prof. dr. Simona Kustec, Slovenian Minister for Education, Science and Sport already held several meetings in January 2021.
On 19 January, prof. dr. Kustec met with European Commissioner for innovation, research, culture, education and youth, Mariya Gabriel. They identified digital transformation, artificial intelligence, and a new vision for education as EU Council’s priorities and main goals in 2021.
A day later, on 20 January, Slovenian Minister met with Cristian – Silviu Bușoi, the president of the European Parliament’s Committee for industry, research and energy (ITRE). They discussed the field of science and research, the EU research reform, EU partnerships and international cooperation.
On 22 January, she participated in an informal meeting of ministers for education, organised under the auspices of Portugese presidency. Discussion revolved mainly around the contribution of education to this year’s Social Summit to be held in May in Porto, and around strengthening of the educational system.
Finally, prof. dr. Kustec met the president of Committee for culture and education Sabina Verhayen on 25 January, presented the importance of synergy between education and science, and pointed to the broader discussion about online and remote learning, which Slovenia is planning together with European Commission during the upcoming presidency.
It certainly seems that on paper, Slovenia is aware of the importance of an appropriate education regulation, especially in the times of pandemic, when educational institutions are forced to rely on remote teaching. It is, therefore, all the more surprising to see the lack of activity in the field of EU copyright reform and in the implementation process of the EU Directive on copyright and related rights in the digital single market, which contains the new digital education exception. As of today, Slovenian legislator has not yet published any DSM Directive implementation draft, and its words about the appropriate education regulation so far remain exactly that – just words.
On 23rd of November, 2021, the European Commission has published two reports in the field of copyright, as required by Directives 2014/26/EU (CRM Directive) and 2019/790 (DSM Directive). They are supported by two studies: Study on emerging issues on collective licensing management in the digital environment, and Study on selected issues relating to the application of the CRM Directive.
A new book “Law and Artificial Intelligence: Issues of Ethics, Human Rights and Social Harm” was published (Institute of Criminology at the Faculty of law in Ljubljana, 2021), the editors of which are prof. dr. Aleš Završnik and dr. Katja Simončič. The author of one of the articles is also dr. Maja Bogataj Jančič, LL.M., LL.M., who wrote an article on the topic of whether artificial intelligence can be an author of a copyright work.
Jožef Štefan Institute is organising GO-DIP workshop series, first of them coming on November 19th, 2021 is revolving around software IP and data agreements. The GO-DIP project aims to increase the competencies of knowledge generators and intermediaries. At 15.10 dr. Maja Bogataj Jančič, LL.M., LL.M. will be lecturing in the Workshop: Development of a checklist for model digital IP agreements. Welcome!
2nd GPAI Summit will occur from 11-12 November, 2021 in Paris, France. Leading international AI experts from civil society, academia, industry and governments, including ministerial-level delegates from GPAI’s Membership, will come together for GPAI’s annual event. This public-facing event will include reporting on the ten Working Groups’ study topics, including the reporting of Data Governance Working Group (DG WG). Public conferences will be broadcasted live on GPAI’s Youtube channel. Welcome!