The Committee of Member States’ Representatives to the EU (Coreper) will discuss on Wednesday 17 May whether to extend the mandate of the Executive Director of the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO), Belgian Christian Archambeau.
The five-year term of office of the Executive Director started on 1 October 2018 and is due to end on 30 September 2023. Mr Archambeau would like to continue for another 2 years as Executive Director until retirement age.
On 7 December 2022, the Chairman of the EUIPO Management Board informed the EU Council of his decision not to submit to the EU Council a proposal to extend the term of office of the current Executive Director of the EUIPO for a further 5 years. On 25 April 2023, the EUIPO Management Board provided its assessment, which was reportedly positive.
The ‘Mertens Group’ (informal group of the Council of the EU, which prepares the work of Coreper) examined the information provided by the EUIPO Management Board on 8 May 2023. “On the basis of this information, the Mertens Group exchanged views on the possible extension of the term of office of the current EUIPO Executive Director”, according to a Council note obtained by EUROPE (https://aeur.eu/f/6wm ).
Coreper is asked to “provide guidance for the way forward” with regard to a possible extension of the mandate of the EUIPO Executive Director.
The three candidates for the post who could be proposed by the Board are the French-Spanish Étienne Sanz de Acedo (CEO of the International Trademark Association-INTA), the Italian Andrea Di Carlo (Deputy Executive Director of the EUIPO) and the Portuguese João Negrão (Chairman of the EUIPO Board of Appeal).
Executive Directors of decentralised agencies are usually appointed by the Management Board of the agency concerned on the basis of a list drawn up by the Commission after an open selection procedure. Occasionally, the appointing authority is the Commission or the Council of the EU. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)