Remaining active: We provided feedback for various European Commission consultations - OpenWebSearch.eu – Promoting Europe‘s Independence in Web Search

After the successful completion of the OpenWebSearch.EU project in April this year we are continuing the operation, maintanance and further development of the Open Web Index (OWI) and a wider European Web Data Infrastructure under the Open Web Search (OWS) initiative.
The initiative unites most of the former project partners and brings in further parties from the research and tech domain. The goal is not only to continue with various research projects surrounding the OWI, but to further promote the need for a public-private web data infrastructure for Europe. With this mission in mind, we have provided feedback to various EC consultations in the past months.

Spreading the word in Europe

The OWS initiative supported by Partner Project PriDI (Privacy Enhanced Digital Infrastructures) actively contributed to various Public Consultations conducted by the European Commission.

Public Consultations enable citizens and businesses to share their views on new EU policies and existing laws. The Commission analyses the feedback and contributions received and takes them into account for fine tuning its initiatives. Providing feedback in the Commission’s consultations is a chance to actively shape EU policies and strategic European goals. It furthermore strengthens the visibility of the OWS Initiative and its aim for developing an open European Web Data Infrastructure on European level.

So far, in 2026 we provided feedback in the following consultations:

In January 2026 we participated in the consultation concerning the so-called Digital Decade Policy Programme.

The Digital Decade policy programme is commonly agreed by the European Commission, Parliament and Council and serves as a digital strategy. The Programme outlines a vision for Europe’s digital transformation, sets out concrete targets and objectives and provides a governance framework and mechanisms for collaboration, both between the Commission and Member States and among Member States.

In this consultation the OWS Initiative calls for building a European Web Data Infrastructure that provides start-ups, SMEs and industry with large-scale access to high-quality web data. We describe, why the European Web Data Infrastructure is an inevitable resource for a neutral and open internet and how it can help to ensure freedom of choice.

You can find the contribution under this link: https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/have-your-say/initiatives/15514-Review-of-the-Digital-Decade-policy-programme/F33363480_en

In March 2026 the European Commission conducted a so-called Digital Fitness Check.

With the Digital Fitness Check, the European Commission aims to elaborate how the digital rulebook affects and supports the competitiveness objective of the EU. The goal is to assess how different laws work together, identifying synergies, good practices, and any remaining gaps, overlaps and inconsistencies. Its aim is to ensure that the overall system remains effective, proportionate and fit for the future, and delivers on the EU’s high standard of protection of fundamental rights.

In this consultation we call for clarifying European copyright and data protection law as well as liability aspects. Europe must enable European digital companies to build competitive digital services themselves on the basis of truly sovereign large-scale access to high-quality Web data independent from overseas services.

The contribution is available under this link: https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/have-your-say/initiatives/15554-Digital-fitness-check-testing-the-cumulative-impact-of-the-EUs-digital-rules/F33376983_en

In June 2026 the OWS Initiative provided feedback in a consultation for a better copyright environment for European creativity and innovation.

In 2026 the European Commission is due to review the Directive 2019/790 EC on Copyright in the Digital Single Market. For this purpose the Commission inter alia intends to assess the need to further improve the copyright framework to address new challenges raised by market and technology developments.

Our contribution in this consultation reflected our experiences and findings from the OWS project and the PriDI project with regard to copyright. Complex copyright and database laws give rise to liability risks related to building, redistributing and using the European Web Data Infrastructure, especially in a commercial context. Data collected through crawling the web inevitably includes copyrighted material. We therefore call to resolve the legal uncertainty surrounding the crawling, processing, indexing, and redistribution of publicly accessible Web content for the development and operation of independent European Web Data Infrastructures.

You can access our contribution via this link: https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/have-your-say/initiatives/18173-Targeted-initiative-for-a-better-copyright-environment-for-European-creativity-and-innovation/F33504259_en

In July 2026 the Commission opened a consultation related to European Partnerships to be implemented as joint undertakings.

The goal is to strengthen European Partnerships by streamlining implementation modes and using a portfolio approach to identify a limited set of coherent partnerships, with objectives closely aligned with the European Competitiveness Fund.

The OWS Initiative is working intensively to bring the European Web Data Infrastructure into the European Competitiveness Fund. We therefore used this consultation for calling to strengthen the EUs digital leadership objectives through establishing a European Web Data Infrastructure JU as well as dedicated base funding in the upcoming Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) / European Competitiveness Fund (ECF).

The full contribution is available under this link: https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/have-your-say/initiatives/16413-Horizon-Europe-European-Partnerships-to-be-implemented-as-joint-undertakings/F33508399_en

Influencing and shaping European policies and existing laws remains one of our key topics and we continue looking for possibilities to spread the word and highlight the need for a European Web Data Infrastructure. For enhancing the topic’s visibility and weight, we call our community to support us by also contributing to relevant EC consultations referencing the OWS project and the existing European Web Data Infrastructure.

Let’s reclaim the web together!