On 1 January 2021, Portugal took responsibility for the the 6 months rotating Presidency of the Council of the EU. During this 6-month period, the presidency chairs meetings at every level in the Council, helping to ensure the continuity of the EU’s work in the Council.
The priorities of Portugal’s presidency are driven by its motto: “Time to deliver: a fair, green and digital recovery“.
The presidency programme focuses on five main areas, which are in line with the goals of the EU’s strategic agenda:
- strengthen Europe’s resilience
- promote confidence in the European social model
- promote a sustainable recovery
- speed up a fair and inclusive digital transition
- reaffirm the EU’s role in the world, ensuring that this is based on openness and multilateralism
For industrial property matters the programme of the Portuguese Presidency is the following:
We will give visibility to the benefits of protecting industrial property rights and promote the industrial property system. In this context, we will promote innovative solutions, especially in the area of green technologies and artificial intelligence, as well as the fight against counterfeiting. In this area, we will organize a high-level conference on intellectual property and the digital transition to be held in Lisbon in February.
During the Portuguese Presidency, it will be up to the National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI) to continue the work carried out by previous presidencies in matters such as Design, Enforcement, the Unified Patent Court, Supplementary Certificates of Protection and Geographical Indications. According to the INPI, “particular attention will be paid to issues directly related to Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, in particular, to discuss how Industrial Property can help this sector to mitigate the difficulties it is going through in the current context”.
