In October 2000, the Draft Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union was published by the Bureau, the management body of the European Parliament. This charter is intended to clarify the provisions of the Charter and explains the fundamental human rights. The document is built on several other treaties and conventions, for example the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.

Article 17 in the charter is about the right to property, and the subsection 2 in this article says that “Intellectual property shall be protected.” The explanation for this says that “Intellectual property covers not only literary and artistic property but also patent and trademark rights and associated rights.”

Amelia’s first question is to the Council, and she wants to know what the meaning of the statement associated rights in the explanation is. The Council answered that interpreting the Charter is not within the remit of the Council.

In the second question she asks the Commission to clarify the meaning of “associated rights”, since the Council could not. The Commission answered that the matter in question is not within the Commission’s remit.

In the third question, Amelia says that it is obvious that it will be the Court of Justice who decides the meaning of “associated rights” in the end. She wants to know who the Commission thinks should take political responsibility for the explanations. The Commission did not answer to this question, but refered to the previous answer.