Exchanges with Baltic partners on Europe’s future

On 23-26 February, an EPO delegation led by President Campinos visited Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to meet with government officials and the heads of national IP offices.

The visits are part of the Office’s broad consultation on its new strategic foresight initiative “Scenarios for the Future 2025-2045.” This initiative explores how the innovation system might evolve in the future, with a new study presenting possible scenarios due to be published in June 2027, to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the EPO.

Securing Europe’s technological and economic sovereignty

During the visits, President Campinos exchanged views with the Vice-Minister of Justice of Latvia, Ms Lauma Paegļkalna, the Vice-Ministers of Justice of Lithuania, Ms Barbara Aliaševičienė, Ms Kristina Zamarytė-Sakavičienė and Mr Martynas Dobrovolskis, as well as with the Secretary General to the Minister of Justice and Digital Affairs of Estonia, Ms Tiina Uudeberg. The exchanges focussed on the European innovation landscape and how to secure Europe’s technological and economic sovereignty in the decades ahead. Topics of discussion included the technologies that will shape future strategy and the role of the patent system and patent offices going forward.

The President emphasised the crucial importance of such conversations to ensuring that the scenarios presented next year are comprehensive, inclusive, strategically useful and reflective of realities and priorities in countries across Europe.

The initial outcomes of these high-level consultations will be further discussed, along with preliminary outlines of the scenarios, at the annual co-operation meeting with member states scheduled to take place this May in Split, Croatia.

More on Scenarios for the Future 2025-2045

In 2007, the Office published a study called “Scenarios for the Future,” which envisioned the future of the innovation ecosystem and the roles that the IP system and IP offices might be playing by 2025. Building on these foundations, the Office has now launched a new initiative that seeks to reflect on further possible developments over the next two decades.

To ensure inclusiveness, the Office initiated a broad consultation process with key stakeholders, such as member states, major applicants, user associations, academia, the judiciary, EPO staff and the public at large. The aim is to collect retrospective assessments of the scenarios in the original study and perspectives on the future.