The European Commission has published its work programme for 2016.

The main item of interest to intellectual property practitioners is the announcement that all the Commission's proposals to implement its strategy for the digital single market (see Legal update, Commission announces Digital Single Market Strategy) will be made by the end of 2016.

The work programme says that legislative proposals to reduce the differences between national copyright regimes and allow for wider online access to works by users across the EU, including further harmonisation measures, will be issued in December 2015. A Communication on copyright and legislative proposal on portability will follow in 2016.

Annex VI to the work programme lists legislation that will come into force in 2016. On this list is Directive 2014/26/EU on collective management of copyright and related rights and multi-territorial licensing of rights in musical works for online use in the internal market, due to come into force on 10 April.

For a general update on the work programme, see Legal update, European Commission Work Programme: European Commission publishes its 2016 Work Programme.

Source: European Commission Work Programme 2016, 27 October 2015.