Ministers from Central Europe are holding a two-day summit in Veszprém, Hungary. Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Public Administration and Justice Tibor Navracsics said that Budapest would be well-placed to compete for the role of a regional centre for the European Patent Court, if partner countries also agree.
Also taking part in the Veszprém summit are: Slovak Justice Minister Tomáš Borec, Croatian Justice Minister Orsat Miljenić, Czech State Secretary for Justice Daniel Volak, Slovenian State Secretary for Justice Helmut Hartman, and Polish Deputy State Secretary for Justice Wojciech Węgrzyn. Last year saw the first meeting of Central European justice ministers, with Croatia and Slovenia augmenting the traditional group from the ‘Visegrád 4’ countries. This is the fourth occasion since then that Central European justice ministers have met in this format, primarily to discuss matters offering opportunities for cooperation within the European Union.
Among the items on the agenda for the present meeting are justice reforms in the participating countries, for example the question of heads of the judiciary and the distinction between adversarial and non-adversarial proceedings.
Mr. Navracsics said that in the near future the granting of patents across Europe will be unified, and a European-level court to rule on legal issues related to this will be created in London, Paris and Munich. There will be the possibility for Member States to create regional divisions, however, to promote the simpler handling of procedures. A working group has examined the advantages and disadvantages of such a division and its report is being discussed now in Veszprém. Budapest has already gained the right to be the headquarters of the European Patent Court’s training centre, and for this reason the Deputy Prime Minister said that ‘We think – if the other countries agree with the creation of such a regional division – that Budapest would be well-placed to apply to be its centre.’
(Ministry of Public Administration and Justice)
