Belgian Presidency of the Council of the European Union

On the occasion of the Belgian Presidency of the European Union 2010, the Belgian Federal Public Services of Economy and of Justice, and the European Commission are pleased to invite you to a conference on 30 November 2010. The conference will address the need to ensure a more e ective enforcement of the intellectual property rights. This objective is directly linked with the priorities set out in the European 2020 Strategy “A strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth” and the Stockholm programme “An open and secure Europe serving and protecting the citizens” and its Action Plan “Delivering an area of freedom, security and justice for European citizens”.

Counterfeiting and piracy are generally linked with serious and organized crime and have consequences for the European economy and public health. However, in the European Union, there are still some major di erences in the practices of Member States in the  eld of  ghting counterfeiting and piracy through criminal measures. An exchange of ideas between the di erent institutions and Member States could therefore contribute to a well-balanced approach of the criminal aspects in the  ght against counterfeiting and piracy. 

The conference will give the representatives of the private and public sectors the occasion to discuss a number of issues concerning criminal aspects of combating counterfeiting and piracy.

Please note that an expert meeting only open for the representatives of the Member States and the Institutions will take place on 29 November. Therefore, the Conference will start with a summary of the discussions on the previous day.

Please  nd enclosed a preliminary programme and practical information about the conference, including instructions on registration. We would be most grateful if you could  ll in the online registration form by 10 November 2010 through the following website: EU-ipr-criminal-enforcement-registration.net.

Please note that there are a limited number of places.

Speakers include:

• Belgian Minister of Economy and Reform, Vincent Van Quickenborne;
• European Commissioner of Internal A airs, Cecilia Malmström;
• Director-general of the European Commission responsible for Home A airs, Stefano Manservisi;
• Director-general of the European Commission responsible for Home A airs, Stefano Manservisi;

Draft Programme: 

• 09 h 30 Registration of participants
• 10 h 00 Opening introductions
• 10 h 40 Summary of the meeting of the previous day between IP experts and Justice experts
• 11 h 00 The counterfeiting phenomenon and its scale
• 11 h 30 Panel I: Speci c counterfeiting phenomenon
• The concept of counterfeiting and medicines
• The concept of counterfeiting and cigarette smuggling
• Large scale counterfeiting in the digital environment
• 12 h 15 Questions
• 12 h 45 Break
• 14 h 15 Panel II: Practical problems
• Criminal Prosecution of counterfeiting and piracy in Member States of the EU
• The needs of the private sector
• Issues in the area of justice
• Problems faced by police authorities
• 14 h 15 Panel III: Future perspectives
• 16 h 00 Break 
• 16 h 20 Conclusions
• 16 h 40 End of conference

Practical information

Online registration (by 10 November 2010) : EU-ipr-criminal-enforcement-registration.net