Introduction

1. EBLIDA, the European Bureau of Library, Information and Documentation Associations, is an independent, non-profit umbrella organisation of national library, information, documentation and archive associations in Europe. Subjects on which EBLIDA concentrates are European information society issues, including copyright & licensing, culture & education and EU enlargement. We promote unhindered access to information in the digital age and the role of archives and libraries in achieving this goal. We represent the interests of our members to the European institutions, such as the European Commission, European Parliament and the Council of Europe.

2. EBLIDA, together with our international colleagues in the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions - IFLA, take a close interest in the WTO GATS process designed to liberalise trade in services. We have met with WTO and EC officials in Geneva to discuss the concerns of the library community in the GATS negotiations.

3. We welcome this opportunity to present the views of the European library community in the preparation of initial offers due to be submitted by end of March 2003.

Requests to EC that impact on library and related services

4. The UN Central Product Classification for library services (Class No. 96311) includes all types of libraries and services as follows:

Services of libraries of all kinds. Documentation services, i.e. collection, cataloguing, whether manually or computer-aided, and retrieval services of documents. The services may be provided to the general public or to a special clientele, such as students, scientists, employers, members, etc.

There is a special note in database services to say that documentation services consisting in information retrieval from databases are classified in subclass 96311 (Library services).

5. The relevant GATS sector is that of Recreational, Cultural and Sporting Services sub-sector Libraries, archives, museums and other cultural services.

6. According to the EC consultation document, a limited number of requests have been made to the EC on this sector, with most requests addressing all the four sub-sectors with a request to extend the sectoral coverage and/or to remove the existing restrictions.

7. We also take a strong interest in commitments in Educational Services, many of which feature library services as a central part of their activities.

EC consultation questions

8. Should the EC and its Member States agree to a request, either fully or in part, with an explanation of the reasons. Address the impact (either positive or negative) that individual requests might have on – for example business, consumers – if the EC and its Member States were to decide to agree to the request.  

EBLIDA response to consultation questions

9. EBLIDA strongly urges the EC not to agree to any request to extend the sectoral coverage and/or to remove the existing restrictions in the sub-sector Libraries, archives, museums and other cultural services.  

10. The EC must not make commitments that call into question the funding and regulation of publicly funded library services.

11. The EC must not make commitments that would lead to foreign providers being able to demand national government funding.

12. It is vitally important that subsidies and other forms of direct and indirect support continue to be excluded under Mode 3.

13. Publicly funded libraries are part of the cultural sector. They encourage the development and promotion of cultural works, especially literature, and the preservation and dissemination of these works.

14. We believe that any GATS commitments could threaten the operation and future development of publicly funded library services. This is because the preservation of our cultural heritage, free access to information and the notion of a community-based library serving the needs of the local population, take priority over profit margins.

15. Libraries should therefore be accorded protection in order to guarantee their role, often mandated by national legislation.

The societal, cultural and educational roles of libraries

16. The publicly funded library is one of the most democratic of institutions, serving the needs of citizens, regardless of their age, gender, educational level, learning ability, employment, ethnic origin or wealth.  As a public space, the library helps to define a sense of community, providing a safe and neutral meeting point. At different times in their lives, people see libraries as a:

• place of wide-eyed discovery;

• tool for lifelong learning;

• support for political and social enquiry;

• bank of ideas and inspiration;

• source of answers to factual questions;

• ongoing educational support from primary school to higher studies;

• place to acquire new skills;

• community centre;

• local history resource;

• place of leisure and enjoyment.

17. Because of their public funding, libraries are able to provide impartial, independent information services. If an information resource, such as a library, is run by a private enterprise, the independence of the service may be compromised. We see this happening in privately financed web search engines, which give an extra weight to search results from sources that pay them to give their search results a higher rank. Publicly financed sources are more likely to be impartial.

18. The EC position on the Audiovisual sector emphasises the “special nature of the audiovisual sector” as an essentially cultural form of expression and believes that this could be threatened by increased liberalisation [1].

26. This would contradict global aspirations to bridge the digital divide between nations and regions of the world. It would defeat the aims of the UN World Summit on the Information Society in Geneva in 2004 and Tunis in 2005 in which libraries feature. It would hinder the goals of the eEurope action plan.