On May 29 and 30 the EU Competitiveness Council will meet in Brussels. The Council consists of ministers from EU member states.

Among the topics on the agenda are a progress report and exchange of views on a communication from the European Commission on enhancing the patent system in Europe.

The communication, published last year, discusses introducing a Community patent to make protection more affordable in the EU.

Following meetings of the EU Council's working party on IP (patents), the latest proposals for the Community patent envisage making use of automatic translations to ensure that patents are available in all EU languages.

It is also possible that the ministers at the meeting will discuss the Commission's proposal to reduce fees for Community trade marks (CTMs) as a means of reducing OHIM's estimated €300 million surplus.

At the Competitiveness Council meeting in May 2007, member states agreed in principle that CTM fees should be reduced, but definite proposals have yet to be published. There is some disagreement among member states over whether the fees should be reduced and, if so, by how much.

The May 29/30 meeting is also due to publish a resolution on a Commission recommendation on the management of intellectual property in knowledge transfer activities and code of practice for universities and other public research organizations - the so-called IP Charter Initiative.

A day before the Competitiveness Council meeting, on May 28, the IP Working Group will meet to discuss the latest draft agreement on creating an EU patent judiciary, which could lead to the creation of an IP court. It will meet again on June 11.

As Slovenia holds the EU presidency until June, the meeting will be chaired by Andrej Vizjak, Slovenia's minister of economy, Gregor Virant, minister of public administration, and Ms Mojca Kucler Dolinar, minister of higher education, science and technology.

France takes over the EU presidency for six months from July 1.