If you want to learn more about the process of adopting the Directive, visit the website CREATe. A side-by-side comparison of the Proposal of the Commission, the compromise Proposal of the Council and the amendments of the Parliament can be found here.

In September 2016, the European Commission published, amongst other legislative proposals, the Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and the Council on copyright in the Digital Single Market (hereinafter: Proposal for the Directive).

After the Proposal for the Directive has been published, the representatives of the members states in the Council started cooperating amongst themselves for possible changes and amendments to the proposal. In February and March 2017, the Committees of the European Parliament adopted their opinions on the Proposal for the Directive (opinion of the Committee on Culture and Education (CULT), opinion of the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO), opinion of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE), opinion of the Committee on Legal Affairs (JURI)).

In May 2018, the member states adopted the compromise proposal of the Council on the Committee of Permanent Representatives (COREPER) and assigned the mandate to the Council to start the trilogue with the European Parliament and European Commission. However, in July 2018, the European Parliament rejected (with 318 votes against and 278 votes in favour) the mandate to commence negotiations in the trilogue.

In September 2018, the European Parliament submitted its amendments to the proposal of the Commission. In October 2018 the so-called trilogue between all three legislative bodies (the Council, the Parliament and the Commission) was initiated and the bodies negotiated on the final text of the Proposal for the Directive. Particularly Articles 11 and 13 remained undetermined between the institutions. In the end of 2018, the Presidency of the Council re-applied for the mandate for further negotiations with the Parliament and the Commission as some changes to the text of the compromise proposal were needed. In February 2019, the member states re-assigned the mandate to the Council. Netherlands, Luxembourg, Italy, Poland, Malta, Slovakia, Sweden and Finland opposed the re-assignment, while Slovenia abstained from voting.

On 13 February 2019, the trilogue ended and resulted in the final text of the Proposal for the Directive. The text was then approved by the Committee of Permanent Representatives (COREPER) and the Committee on Legal Affairs (JURI). Just before the plenary vote the Proposal for the Directive was amended and the numbers of the articles changed. On 26 March 2019, the MEPs adopted the Directive with 348 votes in favour and 274 votes against. On 15 April 2019, the Ministers of Agriculture and Fisheries approved the Directive the Council. The Netherlands, Luxembourg, Poland, Italy, Finland and Sweden voted against, while Slovenia, Belgium and Estonia abstained from voting.

The Directive was published in the Official Journal of the EU on 17 May 2019 and entered into force on 7 June 2019. Member states will have until 7 June 2021 to implement the Directive into their national legislations.