Press Release: Our common future
05 July 2016
The Hague, 05 July 2016
EBLIDA is an organisation that embodies trans-national cooperation for the public good of all Europeans.
EBLIDA’s membership achieves this by harnessing the skills, expertise and aspirations of Europe’s professional library organisations and institutions, their members and staff, that regardless of nationality, are united by strong common professional values.
In light of the result of the UK Brexit referendum of 23 June 2016, EBLIDA intends to strongly support the British library community during the years ahead.
We believe that during this period, the best way for British library and information organisations and institutions to protect their potential interests in Brussels is through membership of pan-European library and information organisations such as EBLIDA, since the UK may decide to take a path that leads to remaining in the EEA or striking an agreement with the EU that gives it enhanced access to the EU Internal Market, whereby relevant EU law may in future still continue to apply to many UK library and information activities, especially in the digital environment.
EBLIDA pledges to continue to represent the interests of all its members in its advocacy with the EU institutions, including its British members who now find themselves in the unprecedented situation of having in political terms suddenly lost their own direct voices in Brussels while the UK continues in EU membership and pending the outcome of the UK's negotiations on the nature of its future relationship with the EU.
We stand ready to help our British colleagues now and in future and will not give up fighting for them in Europe in relation to:
- copyright and other information law
- education, research and culture
- cross-border access to information and knowledge
- development of libraries, literacy and a reading culture
- information literacy and other skills training for citizens
- global exceptions and limitations at WIPO
Finally, we won’t give up on you because we know that for all those campaigns, whether within or outside of the EU, you will, as always, stand by your colleagues throughout the rest of Europe.
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