May 2010 - N° 19

Editorial : Kunio Mikuriya
Secretary General of the World Customs Organizations (WCO)

Counterfeiting, food & beverage fraud, and contraband:Protecting consumers

State-of-play and political initiatives in Europe

• Fighting the dangers of counterfeiting in Europe’s Internal Market
  Michel Barnier, Commissioner for Internal Market and Services
• Protecting European consumers in the fight against counterfeiting
  John Dalli, Commissioner for Health and Consumer Policy
• Customs working to protect the safety of European citizens
  Algirdas Semeta, Commissioner for Taxation and Customs Union, Audit and Anti-Fraud
• French strategy in the fight against cigarette counterfeiting
  François Baroin, Minister for the Budget, Public Accounts, and Government Reform
• Defending quality and guaranteeing the compliance of food and drinks in Europe
  María Elena Espinosa Mangana, Spanish Minister for the Environment and Rural and Marine Habitats
• The fight against counterfeiting and fraud: initiatives in Belgium
  Carl Devlies, Belgian Secretary of State for the Co-ordination of the Fight against Fraud
• Infringing intellectual property rights and its problems in terms of alcohol products in Poland in the years 2007-2010
  Jacek Kapica, Polish Undersecretary of State, Ministry of Finance, General Director of Customs Service

Community initiatives for protecting consumers

• Counterfeit medicines: organised crime!
  Françoise Grossetête, MEP for the Greater South-East Region of France, Member of the Commission on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety
• Combating intellectual property crime
  Robert Wainwright, Director of Europol
• Counterfeiting and Consumer Protection
  Professor Marc Gentilini, Honorary President of the French Academy of Medicine
  Managing Director of the Fondation Chirac for access to quality medication and health services
• Counterfeit cigarettes in the EU
  Austin Rowan, European Commission Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF), Head of Unit, Task Group Cigarettes
• Eurojust: a case example of co-ordinated actions against an internet network sale of fake pills
  Aled Williams, President of Eurojust
• Consumer safety and health at stake: the need for targeted action
  Kostas Rossoglou, Legal Officer, Legal & Economic Department, BEUC
• Better protection for citizens as consumers: a new mission for the Council of Europe
  Pierre Delval, Anti-Counterfeiting Advisor to the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly
• In favour of a political response to organised crime: counterfeiting
  Alain Bauer, Professor of Criminology at the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers (Paris), Chairman of the Steering Committee of the National Observatory of Deliquency and Penal Responses, France
  Mickaël R. Roudaut, Administrator at DG Justice, Freedom and Security, European Commission
• The European Union: facing the challenges of counterfeiting in developing nations
  Thierry Cornillet, Barrister, Chairman of the International Association of French-Speaking Regions, Former Rapporteur to the European Parliament for humanitarian actions

Expert opinions

• Necessary state intervention
  Bernard Rideau, Director of the Europe Strategic Group, Brussels, Former Advisor to President Giscard d’Estaing at the Elysée (1974-81)
• Counterfeiting: the perfect trade
  Doris Buddenberg, Unicri’s Officer-in Charge
• How technique can play an effective role in the fight against the illicit trade in tobacco products
  Jacques Leclerc, Managing Director of Business Care Consulting, Consultant and expert on the European tobacco markets

Concrete cases

• The Pilot Project of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA) in Sweden: an initiative to fight counterfeit medicines in Europe and improve patient safety
  Jean-Marc Bobée, Sanofi Aventis, Chairman of the EFPIA project for standardized coding and identification of pharmaceuticals in Europe
• Guarantee of Origin: a consumer demand
  Audrey Yayon-Dauvet, Intellectual Property Director at the Pernod Ricard Group
  Mikael Spangberg, The ABSOLUT Company Legal Director at the Pernod Ricard Group (Sweden)
• Post Offices and Counterfeiting: the complexity of a new task
  Olivier Tsalpatouros,Head of Customs and International Trade Headquarters External Relations Division, Group La Poste (France)
• Protecting mass-market products: a worldwide issue
  Michael Ellis, Global Head of Brand Protection for German based Skin Care & Cosmetics company, Responsible for managing the international co-ordination of Global anti counterfeit efforts