The “Copyright Subgroup” of the “High Level Expert Group” has published its “Report on Digital Preservation, Orphan Works, and Out-of-Print Works. Selected Implementation Issues”.
The main point is, that the group proposes to uphold the principle of “rightholders’ consent”. However, the recommendations “deal with digital copying for the purpose of preservation only”. So they don’t give an answer to the question of giving access to digital assets (i.e. the Google books question).
The group also highlights that “a solution to the issue of orphan works is desirable”, but it does not come up with a straight forward solution. Rather it leaves it to the member states to decide on orphan works.
For out of print works, the group refers to its decision of 16 October 2006 when it proposed a model license for libraries to make out of print works accessible digitally in closed networks. This model license has not been implemented so far.
The press release and full content of the report are available at http://www.europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/07/508&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en.