EU – Baltic States, Internet, Legislation

On WIPO

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations. It is dedicated to developing an international intellectual property (IP) system, which rewards creativity, stimulates innovation and contributes to economic development while safeguarding the public interest.

WIPO was established by the WIPO Convention in 1967 with a mandate from its Member States to promote the protection of IP throughout the world through cooperation among states and in collaboration with other international organizations (its headquarters are in Geneva, Switzerland).

Short history

In 2000, the European Union and its Member states took the formal decision to ratify these WIPO Treaties together.

See: Council Decision of 16 March 2000 on the approval, on behalf of the European Community, of the WIPO Copyright Treaty and the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty, Official Journal, L 89, 11 April 2000, p. 6.

The negotiations on the two fundamental WIPO treaties for the first time marked the EU intention to receive a full contracting party’s status in the field of copyright, as opposed to the observer status it enjoyed so far in WIPO on copyright issues.

The EU and its member states participated fully in the WIPO’s Diplomatic Conference of 1996 aimed to upgrade the rights of authors, performers and phonogram producers to withstand the challenges of the digital age.

The two WIPO copyright treaties contain rules on distribution, rental, the right of public communication as well as “making available” the protected content online.

 Immediately after the Diplomatic Conference in 1996, work started at the European level to adapt European copyright law to the WIPO “internet treaties”.

Soon after, a European Copyright Directive was adopted in 2001.  

See: Directive 2001/29/EC of the European Parliament and the Council of 22 May 2001 on the harmonisation of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society. Official Journal, L 167, 22 June 2001.

Commission’s opinion on WIPO’s ratification

“It is an important day for the European Union, its member states and WIPO. We, as a group have shown our attachment to the international system of copyright protection of and related rights. These two treaties brought protection that required by the modern technologies; as the technological evolution accelerates, protecting creators and creative industries is more urgent than ever”.  

EU Internal Market Commissioner, Charlie McCreevy, Brussels, 14 December 2009.

By ratifying these Treaties, the EU and its member states join the global community in the renewed commitment efforts of moving forward on a high level of protection for creators and creative industries. The EU-27 member states have meanwhile transposed the provisions of the 2001 Copyright Directive into their national legislation.