Today, the Commission opened the 2025 International IP Enforcement Summit in Athens, co-organised with the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) and the Greek authorities. This is one of the largest global events dedicated to the enforcement of intellectual property rights.
Over 300 stakeholders from government, international organisations, law enforcement, industry, and civil society, are gathering for two days to address today’s most pressing IP enforcement challenges – including the impact of AI, online counterfeiting and piracy, and the importance of cross-border cooperation.
In her keynote address, the Director-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, Kerstin Jorna, emphasised the central role of IP enforcement in safeguarding innovation, promoting fair trade, and protecting the public interests in a rapidly changing world.
“IP enforcement is the protective shield that allows innovation to thrive, trade to function, and creative economies to grow. And that enables competitiveness, prosperity and productivity in the Union”.
The Commission’s active role in co-organising the summit reflects its strong commitment to strengthen IP enforcement as part of a broader policy vision. This includes key initiatives such as the AI Act, the Digital Services Act, the SME Fund, and the recommendation to combat counterfeiting. These actions are anchored in the single market strategy, the start-up and scale-up strategy, and the competitiveness compass, which all emphasise the need to support innovation, simplify regulatory framework, and strengthen Europe’s economic resilience.
With counterfeiting alone costing the EU economy EUR 83 billion annually and counterfeit pharmaceuticals posing a growing public health risk, the summit underlines the urgent need for strong, coordinated enforcement. In 2023, EU authorities seized over 152 million fake items, worth EUR 3.4 billion – a stark reminder of the scale of the challenge.
The summit showcases the Commission’s strategic vision to make the single market not just a space for free trade, but a safe, trusted and innovation friendly environment where innovation and creativity can flourish.
