Hello and welcome to this online conversation hosted by the European Centre for International Political Economy,

on the economic and broader societal value of intellectual property or IP for the EU and its member states.

My name is Jackie Davis, and today I'm very pleased to welcome Louisa Santos to this conversation.

Louisa is Deputy Director General of Business Europe, which supported the work on a recent E-Sype study entitled

The Benefits of Intellectual Property

Rights in EU Free Trade Agreement.

Luisa, very warm welcome.

Great to have you with us today.

Hi, Jackie.

Nice to be here.

Louisa, can we just start with a very basic question?

Why does this issue, why does intellectual property matter so much for the EU as a whole,

yes, also for its global trading position, but also for this broader question of European competitiveness?

Well, it is actually what keeps us ahead of the curve. I mean, in Europe, we want to be leaders in the markets.

We want to be leaders in innovation. We also want to keep attracting investments also in high value

added and innovative sectors. And for this to happen, we need strong intellectual property provisions.

And this is true for Europe, but it's also true for the rest of the world.

So it's very important also that our goods and services are recognized by what they are,

by the creativity they incorporate, by the innovation that they have in themselves.

So this is also important that outside Europe, our products and our services are recognized.

And for this, it is very important as well that our trading partners recognize

the intellectual property rights.

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