Transport 

Judges

Cards project

Co-operation in the field of Justice and Home Affairs (chapter 24)

Project title: “Combating Fraud in the Baltic Region within the Field of Counterfeiting and Piracy”

Countries: Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Russia

Recipient authority: European Commission (Directorate General for Justice and Home Affairs)

Project description:

From June 2000 to April 2001, 3 seminars were implemented in Denmark and Sweden for police officers, custom officers, public prosecutors, other civil servants, judges and specialised lawyers from the countries in the Baltic Region. In addition, the project included elaboration of a proposal to the Commission for a concept of future training.

The seminars were implemented in co-operation with the Danish, Swedish and Finnish Anti-Counterfeiting Groups, and the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The project benefited from co-financing under the EU Falcone programme.

The programme was dedicated to

• Enhancing the level of understanding of participants in respect of Intellectual Property Law and infringement procedures, sanctions and remedies available to right holders.

• Specific roles of the different authorities involved in the combat of piracy and counterfeiting

• The role of the judicial system and the challenges posed to the judicial system by, inter alea, the cyber-space.

• Necessary prerequisites for enhanced cross border co-operation between authorities responsible for the combat of counterfeiting and piracy

The programme included also

• The 1998 Green Paper on the combat of Counterfeiting and Piracy in the internal market  (COM(2000) 789 final)

• Progress made in some Member States in respect of implementation of the European Commission’s Customs 2002 programme

• Most recent  provisions adopted in the Council (Justice and Home Affairs) concerning police and judicial co-operation in criminal matters

The outcome of the project was

• An upgrading of the skills and capacity of the participants. The training provided the participants with an expanded knowledge, understanding and management capacity to tackle the issues of counterfeiting and pirate production.

• A multidisciplinary approach in creating a closer co-operation in the prevention of and struggle against organised crimes.

• Links and network among participants from the Baltic area were made much stronger and the participants committed each other on future closer co-operation in the Baltic region.

• Initiatives to create associations of anti-counterfeiting groups in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were further encouraged.

The concept for future training included a recommendation for future training within the field of counterfeiting and piracy  in other European regions. In view of the forthcoming EU enlargement similar training need to be organised in

• Central Europe comprising Germany, Austria, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Slovenia,

• East Mediterranean region comprising Italy, Greece, Malta and Cyprus and

• West Mediterranean region comprising Spain and Portugal with the possible participation of Morocco and Tunisia.

The future training should address a similar target group, i.e. participation of police officers, customs officials, public prosecutors, other civil servants, judges and specialised lawyers