REGIONAL CO-OPERATION

The European Commission funded a wide-ranging programme of technical assistance and co-operation in the field of Intellectual property rights under the PHARE programmes of Community pre-accession aid to the Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs). It also financed cooperation programmes on intellectual property rights under the TACIS programmes for cooperation with the countries of the former USSR (CIS).

GESAC in association with AIDAA (the International Association of Audiovisual Writers and Directors) was tasked by the European Commission with implementing these PHARE and TACIS programmes on Intellectual property rights. 

The aim of these programmes was to enable the Central and Eastern European and CIS countries to modernize and enforce their copyright and related rights laws. For 7 years, GESAC in particular ran intellectual property rights training and awareness-building activities in these regions.