The Marrakesh Treaty in Cyprus

On May 10th, 2019 the Parliament of Cyprus has ratified the Marrakesh Treaty by incorporating to the country’s national legislation the guidelines of the “EU Directive (2017/1564) of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 September 2017 on certain permitted uses of certain works and other subject matter protected by copyright and related rights for the benefit of persons who are blind, visually impaired or otherwise print-disabled and amending Directive 2001/29/EC on the harmonisation of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society”,. Amending the existing Copyright Law of the Republic of Cyprus (L. (59/1976), has adopted an appropriate Law, for the promotion of production and distribution of barrier-free works through authorize entities.

In Cyprus no concrete measures are foreseen for any tangible improvement to actively support the availability of barrier-free accessible works for blind, sight impaired and otherwise reading impaired persons (e.g. through financial support of libraries for the blind and other authorize entities) and thus to end the book famine for the future.