Google, YouTube and Facebook are bracing for a final vote on controversial European Union copyright laws on Tuesday that could force them to police all content on their sites.

MEPs are expected to cast a make-or-break final vote on new laws that could enforce copyright filters on all content posted online and allow publishers and artists to charge for their content to be reproduced.

The proposals tabled today will include a softer version of the most contentious part of the laws, Articles 11 and 13, which called on a link tax on major websites that use other people's content and enforced recognition tools to "prevent the availability" of copyrighted material online.

The proposed copyright laws, backed by a string of artists including Sir Paul McCartney, Annie Lennox, and Mike Leigh, the British film director, have been subject to intense debate and lobbying and were already voted on twice by EU MEPs.

Technology giants including YouTube and Google vehemently opposed the copyright reform, claiming that it would harm creative industries and put the onus on sites to rule on copyright disputes.

Google threatened to pull its news service from Europe and YouTube chief executive Susan Wojcicki said that the copyright directive was "unrealistic" because owners often quarrel over who owns the right to online material.