IPR in EU-Russia relations: a Window of Opportunity?

Peter Mandelson, EU Trade Commissioner

As Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson made clear in a recent speech on "Europe's global trading challenge and the future of free trade agreements," recognition of intellectual property rights and improved enforcement are key issues for the EU. IPR is a very important topic on the trade agenda for the Commission generally and is important to the relationship between the EU, Russia and Ukraine.

	EU-Russia summit in London, United Kingdom, 4 October 2005

The recent EU-Russia summit in London involving the European Commission, the current and incoming EU presidency and the Russian Government was seen as an opportunity to strengthen the relationship between the two groups. Discussions at the Summit focused on the Four Economic spaces, covering economic integration, freedom and justice, external security and research, and education. However, the summit talks were dominated by discussions on energy and visa issues more than on IPR. Does this mean there is no current window of opportunity for IPR in EU-Russia relations?

Russia is one of the EU's largest trading partners and, as its biggest neighbor, is an important strategic partner. With this in mind, it is not a big surprise that the EU is supportive of Russia's bid for WTO membership. On behalf of the EU, the European Commission, led by DG External Relations, is currently negotiating the conditions under which it can support Moscow's ambitions.

An obvious condition for EU support is Russian compliance with the TRIPS agreement. However, the EC currently has no concrete objections to Russia's IP regime and its accordance with TRIPS, and therefore the negotiations have proceeded rapidly. The biggest obstacle for Russia's membership application at the moment is formed not by the EU's concerns about Russian IPR policy or other issues, but by the Russian membership negotiations with the US, which are being held simultaneously. These negotiations are currently stalled and it seems unlikely that the negotiation process will be concluded at the WTO Hong Kong ministerial conference this coming December.

The conclusion of this might be that IPR doesn't play a mayor role in the current EU-Russia relations. The reality however proves to be different. This year, an important step will be made to institutionalize IPR in the EU-Russia bilateral relations in the form of a permanent dialogue on IPR issues. The initiative is currently in the agenda setting phase and terms of reference for such a dialogue have yet to be agreed upon, but the Commission believes that that the process can move forward by the end of the year.

The Dialogue is seen as an important opportunity to address a number of issues on the IPR agenda. The EU vision is to build a dialogue along the same lines as the EU-China dialogue in terms of scope. Whilst the issues and priority given by the parties need to be determined, key issues will certainly include enforcement and geographical indicators.

The focus in the current EU-Russia relations is currently not on IPR issues, but IPR still plays an important role in the relations between the two heavyweights. The recent initiative to launch a permanent dialogue on IPR is but one example of this. CIPR plans to contribute to this by providing the parties involved with concrete information on IPR cases which affects both the EU and Russia and to support the efforts of both parties to improve IPR protection and enforcement.

¹ Speech, "Europe's global trading challenge and the future of free trade agreements", Foreign Policy Centre Debate, Brighton, United Kingdom, 26 September 2005

Published by the Coalition for Intellectual Property Rights
Copyright © 2005 The PBN Company. All rights reserved.
The Coalition for Intellectual Property Rights (CIPR) is a private-public partnership dedicated solely to protecting and enforcing intellectual property rights in the CIS countries and the Baltic States. Through legislative initiatives and lobbying, coalition building, enforcement actions, public awareness, and opinion and economic research, CIPR assists governments and IP owners to establish transparent IPR regimes that adhere to international standards. For additional information, please visit the CIPR website at www.cipr.org or contact CIPR's Washington, DC or Moscow offices at +1 202 466-6210 (U.S.), or +7-095-775-0077 (Russia).