Open Access News

News from the open access movement


Saturday, December 13, 2008

Progress on free movement of knowledge in the EU

Council of the European Union, Conclusions on the definition of a "2020 Vision for the European Research Area", report, adopted at the Competitiveness Council meeting (Brussels, December 1-2, 2008). (Thanks to INIST and Fabrizio Tinti.)

Background: The EU is considering adopting a "fifth freedom", the free movement of knowledge within the EU's internal market. (The first four freedoms are the free movement of goods, services, capital, and labor.) There's been discussion over what exactly that would mean, including potential implications for OA.

[Vision statement:] By 2020, all actors fully benefit from the “Fifth Freedom” across the [European Research Area]: free circulation of researchers, knowledge and technology. ...

The ERA provides for open circulation of knowledge across national borders. ...

Actors are able to access, manage and share knowledge (including via open access) across the ERA using interoperable high performance information systems. ...

See also our past posts on the fifth freedom.