Ukraine

European Union/Ukraine: Interim Agreement covering copyright law

IRIS 1996-2:1/4

Ad van Loon

European Audiovisual Observatory

On 4 December 1995 the Council of the European Union and on 20 December 1995, the European Commission approved an Interim Agreement on trade and trade-related matters, signed on 1 June 1995 between the European Communities and Ukraine. The Agreement is an interim agreement pending the entry into force of the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement between the European Communities and their Member States, of the one part, and Ukraine, of the other part, signed on 14 June 1994. In the Interim Agreement (Article 18), Ukraine undertakes to continue to improve the protection of intellectual, industrial and commercial property rights in order to provide by the end of the fifth year after the entry into force of the agreement (the date of entry into force will be published in the Official Journal of the European Communities) for a level of protection similar to that provided in the European Union by Community acts such as, inter alia,

- Council Directive 91/250/EEC of 14 May 1991 on the legal protection of computer programs;

- Council Directive 93/83/EEC of 27 September 1993 on the coordination of certain rules concerning copyright and rights related to copyright applicable to satellite broadcasting and cable retransmission;

- Council Directive 93/98/EEC of 29 October 1993 harmonizing the term of protection of copyright and certain related rights; and,

- Council Directive 92/100/EEC of 19 November 1992 on rental right and lending right and on certain rights related to copyright in the field of intellectual property.

If problems affecting trading conditions were to occur, Parties have agreed to undertake urgent consultations with a view to reaching mutually satisfactory solutions.

The Interim Agreement is accompanied by a unilateral declaration made by Ukraine concerning the protection of intellectual, industrial and commercial property rights, in which Ukraine declares that it will accede to, inter alia,

- the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works (Paris Act, 1971); and,

- the International Convention for the Protection of Performers, Producers of Phonograms and Broadcasting Organizations (Rome, 1961). (Ad van Loon, European Audiovisual Observatory)