12.12.21
Gemini version available ♊︎The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XXXIII: Swedish Scepticism
Series parts:
- The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part I: Let the Sunshine In!
- The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part II: A “Unanimous” Endorsement?
- The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part III: Three Missing Votes
- The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part IV: The Founding States
- The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part V: Germany Says “Ja”
- The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part VI: A Distinct Lack of Dutch Courage
- The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part VII: Luxembourgish Laxity
- The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part VIII: Perfidious Albion and Pusillanimous Hibernia
- The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part IX: More Holes Than Swiss Cheese
- The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part X: Introducing the Controversial Christian Bock
- The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XI: “General Bock” – Battistelli’s Swiss Apprentice?
- The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XII: The French Connection
- The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XIII: Battistelli’s Iberian Facilitators – Spain
- The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XIV: Battistelli’s Iberian Facilitators – Portugal
- The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XV: Et Tu Felix Austria…
- The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XVI: The Demise of the Austrian Double-Dipper
- The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XVII: The Non-Monolithic Nordic Bloc
- The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XVIII: Helsinki’s Accord
- The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part IXX: The Baltic States
- The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XX: The Visegrád Group
- The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XXI: The Balkan League – The Doyen and His “Protégée”
- The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XXII: The Balkan League – North Macedonia and Albania
- The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XXIII: The Balkan League – Bulgaria
- The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XXIV: The Balkan League – Romania
- The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XXV: The Balkan League – Fresh Blood or Same Old, Same Old?
- The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XXVI: A Trojan Horse on the Budget and Finance Committee
- The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XXVII: Cypriot Complicity
- The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XXVIII: Benoît and António’s Loyal “Habibi”
- The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part IXXX: The EPOnian Micro-States – Monaco and Malta
- The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XXX: San Marino and the Perfidious Betrayal of Liberty
- The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XXXI: The Abstentionists
- The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XXXII: “Plucky Little Belgium”?
- YOU ARE HERE ☞ Swedish Scepticism
Head of the Swedish EPO delegation, Susanne Ås Sivborg. [PDF]
Summary: Benoît Battistelli‘s unlawful “Strike Regulations” did not receive Sweden’s blessing
Like the Belgians, the Swedish delegation also abstained from voting in favour of Battistelli’s “Strike Regulations” in June 2013.
At the time in question, the Swedish delegation was headed by Susanne Ås Sivborg, Director General of the Swedish Patent and Registration Office (PRV).
Sivborg graduated from the Swedish Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) with a degree in civil engineering in 1983.
“In 2009/2010 Sivborg was candidate for the position of President of the European Patent Office…”Between September 1985 and March 1991 she worked as an examiner at the EPO in Munich. She then returned to Sweden where she worked in the private sector with various companies such as AstraZeneca and Electrolux before taking over as head of the PRV in September 2008.
In 2009/2010 Sivborg was candidate for the position of President of the European Patent Office, but she was outmanoeuvred by the alpha-male Battistelli and his Danish accomplice Jesper Kongstad.
During her time on the EPO’s Administrative Council, Sivborg crossed swords with Team Battistelli on a number of occasions and she deplored the deterioration of the social climate at the institution where she had started her career.
“During her time on the EPO’s Administrative Council, Sivborg crossed swords with Team Battistelli on a number of occasions and she deplored the deterioration of the social climate at the institution where she had started her career.”Nevertheless, for the most part Sivborg stopped well short of any outspoken condemnation of Battistelli’s maladministration.
As can be seen from the minutes of the 136th meeting [PDF] of the EPO’s Administrative Council, Sivborg’s criticism of the proposed “Strike Regulations” was very muted indeed.
The Swedish position is minuted under point no. 114 as follows:
“The Swedish delegation referred to its comments on CA/56/13. It was the Council’s duty and responsibility to ensure a balance between management and staff and an efficient and good functioning of the Organisation. The Council also had to ensure that the Organisation fulfilled international conventions, such as the Human Rights Convention. It, too, had been astonished to find that the Office had no legal framework in relation to strikes yet. The Office’s proposal included several good and necessary amendments to the Service Regulations. There were some problems with the detailed wording.”
The impression given here is that the only problems that the Swedish delegation saw with the proposal were some minor issues related to the “detailed wording”.
“…at least Susanne Sivborg had the good grace not to cast a vote in favour of such a manifestly flawed proposal.”That falls well short of what one could reasonably expect from the representative of a country like Sweden, which is highly-developed and has a strong democratic tradition.
But at least Susanne Sivborg had the good grace not to cast a vote in favour of such a manifestly flawed proposal.
In the next part we shall turn our attention to the delegation representing Sweden’s Scandinavian neighbour, Norway. █
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