Central-European justice ministers continue to work towards the establishment of the regional division of the Unified Patent Court, the Minister of Public Administration and Justice announced on Friday, in Veszprém, after the meeting of justice ministers.

At the press conference, Tibor Navracsics said that they are seeking to find a solution to the establishment of the division which would serve to facilitate the administration of patent affairs.

The Deputy Prime Minister reiterated that Central-European justice ministers had held regular meetings since 2011; it is the result of this eighteen-month cooperation, for instance, that the Czech Republic, Poland, Croatia and Hungary signed an agreement on the language training of judges and prosecutors, and for the purposes of this programme, the European Union allocates aid in the magnitude of EUR 124 thousand.

EU matters were also on the agenda of the Thursday-Friday meeting of the ministers; patent procedures will soon become fully standardised in Europe, and courts will be set up at a European level for the assessment of legal disputes related to patent cases in London, Paris and Munich. At the same time, the Member States will also have the option of establishing regional divisions in the interest of facilitating the administration of patent-related affairs, Tibor Navracsics said.

Croatian Justice Minister Orsat Miljenic stressed the importance of the meeting which creates an opportunity for raising issues that are relevant to the countries represented by the attendees and for obtaining new ideas for proposed solutions based on the experiences of other countries.

Czech State Secretary for Justice Daniel Volak stated he was pleased that the meeting had adopted the issues proposed by them and had placed them on its agenda, including the protection of the victims of violent crimes and the option of electronic house arrest. In the Czech Republic, suspects under house arrest cost the State EUR 40 per day, while this cost could be reduced to just EUR 6.6 with a electronic global positioning system.

Polish Deputy State Secretary for Justice Wojciech Wegrzyn was of the opinion that the debate on the victims of violent crimes and the perpetrators of crimes of the most serious types constituted some of the most important topics of the meeting.

According to Slovak Justice Minister Tomas Borec, the attendees are tied together not only by their geographical proximity; their legal systems also have a great deal in common, which is something that they can build on.

Slovenia’s Justice Minister Helmut Hartman stated that they would be interested in the establishment of the regional division of the European Patent Court.

Tibor Navracsics told MTI on Thursday that as Budapest had already been awarded the headquarters for the training centre of the European Patent Court, “we therefore believe that, if the rest of the countries also agree with the establishment of such a regional division, Budapest has a good chance of serving as the seat of this institution”.

(Prime Minister’s Office)