Desirability of an assessment of the EPO's integrity system by Transparency International

Dear Mr Kongstad,

In recent years Transparency International (TI) has established itself as a competent, independent and respected civil society organisation. It did so largely through running assessments of national integrity systems with the aim of highlighting improvement avenues to governments. The member states' delegations are likely to be familiar with their respective national assessments.

Recently TI extended their assessment methodology to 10 EU¹ institutions. Their very detailed report highlights the strengths and weaknesses of the EU Institutions with respect to transparency, integrity and accountability. It found the general situation to be good, whilst issuing recommendations for further improvement as it did establish a risk of corruption in the assessed institutions.

The EPO’s governance has, at times, come under criticism. The Administrative Council itself has apparently had doubts about how to handle e.g. the auditing of the EPO, as can be seen from the creation and subsequent abolition of an Audit Committee. Now that the EPO is taking over another important task for its Members States and for the European Union, namely the administration of the Unitary Patent, it would appear opportune and pertinent to raise confidence in the unitary patent and make it a success. Industry and the public should be shown that all is done to assure the integrity of the EPO.

The methodology developed by Transparency International for assessing the EU institutions can just as well be applied to the EPO. We respectfully request that the Administrative Council establishes contact with __________ ¹ http://www.transparencyinternational.eu/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/EU_Integrity_System_Report.pdf

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Transparency International for assessing the EPO's integrity system. Such assessment would also complete the overall picture the EPO wishes to achieve with conducting various benchmarking studies.

Yours sincerely,

Joachim Michels Chairman Central Staff Committee

Copies to: Mr B. Battistelli, EPO President Transparency International's EU Office Transparency International Deutschland Transparency International Nederland