Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2012-02-13-Speech-1-071-000"
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"en.20120213.15.1-071-000"2
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"Mr President, I am grateful to each and every one of you for your speeches and your support, even if there are some legitimate questions and reservations about this observatory.
I will not respond at length to Mr Nuttall, who has now left the Chamber, save to confirm what Ms Thein said, and I thank her for that. There will be no call for public contributions precisely because we are setting up this observatory to be supported by Alicante and because, as you explained very well Ms Thein, the Alicante office operates without public contributions, but with taxes and trade mark fees.
One million trade marks are protected in Alicante. Mr Rübig asked about small and medium-sized enterprises, as did Ms Băsescu. Yet, out of these one million trade marks, several hundred thousand, and I was able to see this, are trade marks or designs which are protected by small, sometimes very small, and medium-sized enterprises.
It is also within our interest, Mr Rübig, to be situated in Alicante, because, there, with all of the open technology that is in place to enable us to search for, find and check trade marks, as I was able to see, we can rely on this network of small and medium-sized enterprises, which are the main clients of the Office of Trade Marks in Alicante.
Mr President, I should like to finish by mentioning a point that Ms Regner and Ms Gáll-Pelcz mentioned, which is somewhat separate from this issue but which is important: the seemingly mounting controversy which arises at times in relation to the question of ACTA. I should like to invite all of the MEPs and interested parties to prove their objectiveness on this point and to be careful not to draw any hasty or definitive conclusions on these complex issues, because those of us called on to take part in the decision because of our respective institutional competences must all display a spirit of responsibility.
I would also like to hope that you will go ahead with the hearing you have planned on the question of ACTA for the beginning of March. This will be a good opportunity to get to the heart of the matter objectively, dispassionately — this is important — so that you yourselves may take a responsible decision in full knowledge of the facts. My colleague in charge of trade, Karel De Gucht, will explain himself fully in detail on this point at the debates planned for the end of February and the beginning of March in Parliament.
On the subject of ACTA, I would just like to confirm that the Commission believes that ACTA would be a useful legal tool for ensuring greater respect and more efficient protection of intellectual property rights on an international scale. It is an instrument aimed at encouraging third countries to ensure a high, fair level of protection for intellectual property rights and, eventually, the same level that we have here in Europe. The Commission has always believed that ACTA will not change the
. This instrument will therefore not entail any obligation to make changes to the
neither to the e-commerce directive nor the directive on the enforcement of intellectual property rights.
We also believe, honourable Members, that ACTA is consistent with the EU Treaties, including — as Ms Regner mentioned — the European Charter of Fundamental Rights.
That is all I wanted to say on this point. Thank you for your attention and your questions, and thank you very much to Mr Masip Hidalgo for his support and for the improvements he has made to this text with the help of each and every one of you.
Perhaps in addition — I was thinking about this when I was listening to Mr Schwab — it would be useful for some of you from all of the political groups to go to Alicante to see for yourselves how this office operates once this report has been adopted and once the observatory is in place with this small team whom I met. There you will also see that the sunshine does not stop them from working hard, quite the opposite.
I therefore suggest that a delegation of Members from all of the political groups — and perhaps I could go back with you — should go and see how the Office of Trade Marks and Designs operates and how this observatory, which you are establishing through your decision, can start to operate.
Firstly, I should like to confirm to Ms Regner and Mr Engström that, following an amendment by Mr Masip Hidalgo (Amendment 31), civil society will have a role to play in the functioning of this observatory and this role is well recognised in the final text. This is one of the improvements — I call it as I see it — which was made by Parliament to the Commission’s initial text. As Ms McClarkin recalled, the text has been improved and I wanted to thank you for that.
I should also like to tell Ms Geringer and Ms Lichtenberger that the work of the Observatory is getting underway. I can confirm this; I was in Alicante all day on Friday, where I met the small team which is getting this work underway with a great deal of skill, independence and professionalism and which will gain in power. I think I can say, Mr Engström, with my thanks for your objective expectations regarding the work of this observatory, that the methodology will be reliable and the work will be objective and transparent.
I should also like to tell Ms McClarkin that, thanks to Amendment 13, which was tabled, we will avoid any duplication. The office in Alicante already works with national regulators — I was there on Friday while a meeting was taking place with all of the representatives from the national regulators who work with the Alicante office — and this office will allow us to facilitate this work and avoid duplication with national supervisors and therefore ensure that the European office (with the European Observatory) works well and works intelligently with national supervisors.
I want to thank Mr Mészáros for his support. I should like to tell Ms Gallo and Mr Engström that this work is very important. We are taking great care to deal with it objectively and credibly. We are dealing with it in positive way; I also spoke about this with Mr Campinos, the very dynamic President of the Trade Marks Office in Alicante. It is a question of giving an objective, concrete and reliable representation of what intellectual property means for the economy, growth and jobs and to do so in a positive and entirely credible way. A number of economic studies will therefore be carried out on precisely what the development of intellectual property means for economy.
It is not about criminalising — Mr Engström, you will remember that in a public committee debate I told you that it was not my intention to criminalise or point the finger at young people — but, first and foremost, it is about explaining, as you quite rightly pointed out, Mr Schwab, and, together with Mr Masip Hidalgo, you have given us an example of this with the prize for young people or young entrepreneurs. I am a firm believer in contracts rather than constraints. By showing what this represents not only for the economy but also for other areas — Ms Flašíková and Mr Matula mentioned the public health and safety problems that can be caused by counterfeit products, particularly counterfeit medicines — we will set about using this positive explanation to show how damaging piracy and counterfeiting can be for the economy and for public health and safety.
Thanks to the objective work of this observatory we will be able to develop information campaigns. We will also develop cooperation with the countries where these counterfeit products are coming from, as I told you, Mr Schwab. I was in China a few days ago specifically to talk about this. We will increase support for developing technology for detecting counterfeit goods and we will also, together with Mr Šemeta, improve training for the men and women who work on the various external borders of Europe (customs services, police) to participate in joint training on the fight against counterfeiting.
That is what we will be able to do thanks to this observatory, which I firmly believe in, and that is also why I am thanking you for your support.
Ms Ţicău, Mr Baldassarre and Mr Karim mentioned the importance of innovation for the economy. That is also why, honourable Members, I am attaching so much importance to another instrument for protecting intellectual property, that is, the patent. Within a few weeks, we will finally arrive at the point of creating a patent, a single procedure for protecting industrial inventions, after 25 years of waiting, for at least 25, and, I hope, 27 countries. This will also serve to support innovation and creativity and therefore employment."@en1
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