17/04/2001 (Agence Europe) - The Swedish Presidency and the European Commission are organising for 23 and 24 April in Stockholm a conference on piracy and counterfeiting. Participants will include European Internal Market Commissioner Frits Bolkestein, and Swedish Justice and Trade Ministers, Thomas Bodström and Leif Pagrotsky. Debates will be opened by Prince El Hassan of Jordan. We recall that the Commission adopted, last November, an action plan for fighting against counterfeiting and piracy, based initially on harmonisation of legislation on intellectual property rights and the development of training actions. Secondly, the Commission plans to study administrative cooperation mechanisms, the harmonisation of minimum thresholds for penal sanctions and the extension of Europol's powers (see EUROPE of 31 November 2000).