4th Data Protection Day 28 January 2010 in Europe

On the fourth Data Protection Day the Council of Europe issued a communication highlighting the Convention for the Protection of Individuals with regard to Automatic Processing of Personal Data (Strasbourg, 28.I.1981).




Europeans' privacy will be big challenge in the next decade, said Commissioner Viviane Reding for the European Union in an informative press release, which set out both the existing rules (with useful links) and the challenges ahead (IP/10/63).

However, Reding did not mention specific dark clouds on the horizon, such as the SWIFT agreement, the ACTA negotiations or the possible resurrection of IPRED2.




Just one example, for starters; here are some questions where the Council and the Commission should respond in a more constructive manner than what we have seen to date:




MEP Alexander Alvaro (ALDE) on the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA)


Citizens’ rights should be remembered and protected every day of the year.




Ralf Grahn







P.S. Cross-border communication is a necessity in the European Union and beyond, with scrutiny by active citizens. At the same time Euroblogs are an agreeable way to brush up one’s skills in foreign languages.

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EU: Criminal enforcement of IPR? Resurrection of IPRED2?

In the blog post EU IPR enforcement discussion (12 January 2010) we mentioned the conference arranged by the Swedish presidency of the Council of the European Union: Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights, with a Special Focus on Trademarks and Patents (15 December 2009).




Monika Ermert has written an illuminating post on the blog of Intellectual Property Watch: ACTA May Prompt Quick Restart To EU Harmonisation Of Criminal Enforcement Of IP (21 December 2010).

According to Ermert’s sources, the European Union seems to be preparing for the adoption of the “gold standard” of enforcement, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). The European Commission is preparing for a quick restart of a legislative process in the EU to harmonise criminal law sanctions. The Commission may table the new IPRED2 proposal in May or June 2010.



EU Stockholm Programme




In December 2009 the European Council adopted The Stockholm Programme – An open and secure Europe serving and protecting the citizens (dated 2 December 2009; Council document 17024/09).


Under Economic crime and corruption, the European Council calls for criminal sanctions against IPR infringements (page 49):

Counterfeiting is a serious danger for consumers and economies. The Union must improve studies of this phenomenon and ensure that greater account is taken of law enforcement aspects in the work of the future European Observatory on Counterfeiting and Piracy. The European Council calls upon the Council and the European Parliament to consider as soon as possible legislation on criminal measures aimed at ensuring the enforcement of intellectual property rights.

Draft Council Resolution



The draft Council Resolution (document 5022/10) on the Commission Communication Enhancing the enforcement of intellectual property rights in the internal market was discussed yesterday in the Council’s Working Party on Intellectual Property.

The draft Resolution contained an invitation to the Commission (page 5):

… in close collaboration with the Member States, to analyze the application of the Directive 2004/48/EC, including an assessment of the effectiveness, of the measures taken and, while taking account of the rapidly developing digital environment, if necessary propose appropriate amendments.

Criminal IPR sanctions are in the pipeline, but we don’t know their scope, either internationally (ACTA) or in the internal market (IPRED2 redux), but the two are connected.




Ralf Grahn






P.S. The blog of Melania Coman (in Romanian) mixes personal reflections with information about EU structural funds, funding grants, SME loans and news on finance. Her blog could well apply for listing among the more than 500 great euroblogs on multilingual Bloggingportal.eu, a useful one-stop-shop for fact, opinion and gossip on European affairs, i.a. politics, policies, economics, finance and law.

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