The Second Inter-sessional Intergovernmental Meeting on a Development Agenda took place in the WIPO Headquarters in Geneva from 20 to 22 June 2005. EDRI was represented this time by Ville Oksanen. He got two chances to address the meeting. EDRI stressed the importance of the creation of the independent WIPO Evaluation and Research Office as described in item Five based on the proposal by the Friends of the Development.

Oksanen said: "We strongly believe that all decision making should be based on the best scientific knowledge available. Only a totally independent unit, which uses the best practices of the science, can produce results which can be trusted by all stakeholders."

The meeting itself was a dissappointment. Instead of substantial discussion, the developed countries did their best to sidetrack the meeting to procedual matters and succeeded rather well. The positive side of the meeting was the strong participation from civil society, almost equal to the amount of organisations from the right holders' side.

EFF informal blog notes about the meeting (22.06.2005)
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/003743.php#003743

Official WIPO information on the meeting
http://www.wipo.int/meetings/en/details.jsp?meeting_id=8486

(Contribution by Ville Oksanen, EDRI-member EFFI)