NETHERLANDS/WIPO: ELECTION OF NEW WIPO DIRECTOR

C O N F I D E N T I A L THE HAGUE 000398 SIPDIS IO/T (LLUFTIG),EUR/WE (TSMITH) GENEVA FOR USMISSION GENEVA E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/09/2018 TAGS: AORC WIPO KIPR ETRD PREL NL SUBJECT: NETHERLANDS/WIPO: ELECTION OF NEW WIPO DIRECTOR GENERAL REF: STATE 47559 Classified By: CDA Michael Gallagher, reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) ¶1. (SBU) The Netherlands' preferred candidates for WIPO Director General (DG) are Australia's Francis Gurry, followed by Mexico's Jorge Amigo. EconOff met with Paul van Beukering, head of Intellectual Property Unit, Ministry of Economic Affairs, May 9 to discuss the upocoming WIPO DG election per reftel. Van Beukering described the two key criteria that the GONL used in evaluating the candidates: 1) great managerial skills and the charisma to reform WIPO from within; 2) the ability to build bridges across WIPO's divided blocks. In addition, the GONL considered the candidates' familiarity with intellectual property issues and their "closeness" to current DG Idris (the Dutch oppose any candidate who has been "close" to the Idris camp). Van Beukering said this evaluation left the Dutch with a short list of desirable candidates. He added that the Dutch are basing their preferences solely on merit and do not feel compelled to support European candidates. ¶2. (C) Although the GONL favors Gurry and Amigo, van Beukering cautioned that they might be controversial and there is a "real chance they won't make it to the end." For example, he said that Brazilian and Mexican candidates are dividing the Latin American votes. Regarding the three candidates other than Gurry and Amigo whom the U.S. considers best suited to be WIPO DG (Takagi, Odek, and Pretnar),van Beukering said the GONL sees them as lacking in leadership -- "they won't do harm to WIPO, but they won't do much good either." He said the GONL has not yet decided who its third preferred candidate will be. Gallagher