In April 2026, EIFL submitted comments for a public consultation on Serbia’s Draft Law on Copyright and Related Rights (2026).

The amendments seek to harmonize Serbian law with two EU Directives (Directive 2012/28 on orphan works and Directive 2014/26 on collective management organizations), and to implement the Marrakesh Treaty for persons with print disabilities into national law.

EIFL’s brief comments focussed on four areas: implementation of the Marrakesh Treaty, orphan works, library lending, and secondary publication right.

EIFL welcomed Serbia’s implementation of the Marrakesh Treaty that is a complete and faithful transposition of the treaty. We look forward to enactment of the draft law so that Serbia can take advantage of its accession to the Marrakesh Treaty in 2020.

On orphan works, EIFL made two recommendations. Because the list of mandatory resources required for a diligent search (imported from the 2012 orphan works Directive) is outdated, it should be placed in a by-law that can be updated from time to time (rather than hardwiring the list in national legislation), and it should be made explicit that outdated or non-existent sources can be omitted from the search.

On library lending, we urged the exemption of certain types of libraries e.g. school, university, special libraries from the public lending right (the requirement to pay a fee for non-commercial lending by libraries). Such exemptions are permitted by the EU Directive on Rental and Lending Right (2006/115).

Finally, EIFL encouraged the introduction of a new secondary publication right (SPR) that gives authors (or their institutions) the legal right to make a work openly available after or in parallel to publication of a formal version. An example of a provision on SPR, that could be adapted for Serbian law, can be found in EIFL’s Draft Law on Copyright, 2025.