Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-12-17-Speech-3-475"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20081217.27.3-475"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
".
Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, firstly I would like to thank all those who worked with me on drawing up this report, including the shadow rapporteurs, regardless of the positions that each political group will take tomorrow in the vote on the report.
We believe, however, that we have offered a major contribution to the Commission and the Council, and in particular to the Commission, to help it, in future, to carry out a wholesale revision of the rules in order to shelter Europe from this damaging phenomenon.
Combating counterfeiting is, above all, a way in which to support the competitiveness of the European system, and it falls fully within the compass of the fundamental rationale behind the Lisbon Strategy. I believe that it ought also to be considered in terms of its legal and penal scope within our globalised world. An OECD report from 2005 tells us that counterfeit products amounting to approximately EUR 150 billion are sold worldwide, without taking into account wholly domestic counterfeiting or on-line piracy. One commentator says that in reality, the turnover relating to counterfeiting is approximately EUR 500 billion.
By violating trademark rights, patent rights and intellectual property rights, counterfeiting therefore represents an obstacle to the strong points of our industry, our capacity for innovation and our capacity for creativity. This situation requires highly coordinated, targeted measures, significant care in relations with various areas in the world and, I believe, also a different approach to the relationship between the Community institutions and the Member States.
As it was produced by the Committee on International Trade, the report chose, because of institutional responsibilities, to dwell on the external aspects of counterfeiting, but the link between the external and internal aspects of counterfeiting in Europe – which remains the largest market in the world, and the second-largest importer in the world – are very clear.
So, to sum up, we must reaffirm certain fundamental prerequisites for combating counterfeiting: there is a need to strengthen our system of defence against the entry of counterfeit products, and this also means coordinating the police forces that are in charge of controlling products at the borders, and strengthening customs. We ought, however, also to focus significantly on the harmonisation of civil and criminal provisions within our internal legal systems, as well as working within the World Trade Organisation to strengthen the instruments with which the WTO has already equipped itself.
It is clear that turning perhaps more often to the World Trade Organisation for the resolution of certain problems connected with disputes that have arisen helps to reinforce the battle against counterfeiting, just as we believe that there should be penalties of some kind for countries outside the European Union that declare themselves in some way ready to act as conduits for the entry of these products into Europe, as well as for the circulation of such products worldwide.
We need stronger protection for intellectual property, a stronger capacity to defend ourselves within the major world geopolitical regions, and to protect ourselves from the large countries which are appearing on the world market. That is why we view ACTA with great interest. This would be a major international agreement within a multilateral framework, which would not negate the validity of a bilateral framework between the United States, Japan and Europe, with room too for Brazil, India, China and the other major trading regions of the world. It would have a dual focus. On the one hand, it would focus on transparency and respect for civil and political rights, as well as for privacy. On the other, while fully respecting fundamental rights, it would focus on strengthening the interests of trade which, for us, are interests closely linked with development and, hence, also with the freedom of our states within the EU and of the EU itself, as a major political operator on the world markets.
Thus, I believe that we should act on consumer education, the harmonisation of criminal law, stricter controls and the use of tools to exert pressure. With regard to certain developing countries, we have the system of generalised tariff preferences, and we should ensure that this system is strengthened but, at the same time, that it is also used to combat the willingness of certain countries to act as conduits for the entry of these counterfeit goods.
The report aims to create a framework uniting major interests of freedom, major interests of free trade, civil liberties, political and developmental liberties, seeking to strike a blow against a phenomenon that is currently making things very difficult for the European Union's competitive system. Certainly, we might have hoped for a little more, in the sense that some issues have been left in the background of the report, such as the creation of an observatory or the laying down of provisions on traceability. These are issues which did not meet with agreement from the majority."@en1
|
| lpv:videoURI |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples