[Discussioni] [ffii] Council Presidency "Adopts" Software Patent Agreement

[Alberto Cammozzo]

	Ho capito bene?
	la presidenza da dichiarato come *adottato* il provvedimento
	sui brevetti?

	
----- Forwarded message from PILCH Hartmut <phm a a2e.de> -----

To: news a ffii.org
From: PILCH Hartmut <phm a a2e.de>
X-Mailman-Approved-At: Mon, 07 Mar 2005 12:01:59 +0100
Subject: [ffii] Council Presidency "Adopts" Software Patent Agreement

Council Presidency "Adopts" Software Patent Agreement

7 March 2005 -- The Council Presidency today declared the software
agreement of 18 May 2004 to have been adopted, in violation of the
procedural rules and in spite of the evident lack of a qualified
majority of member states and the requests of three states to reopen
negotiations.

Report

 * Cyprus submitted a written declaration at the start of the Council
   session
 * Poland, Denmark, Portugal and others (not specified) asked for a B
   item (discussion point)
 * The Luxembourg presidency claimed this was not possible due to
   procedural reasons, and that this would have undermined the whole
   process -> it would stay on the list of A-items
 * Luxembourg then gave a long statement regarding how the EP still
   gets a chance in second reading, the importance of avoiding legal
   uncertainty etc.
 * Denmark said it was disappointed about this, but accepted and
   submitted a written declaration
 * Later on, the list of A items was accepted by the Council

Conclusion

 * Luxembourg negated the Council's [1]own Rules of Procedure, which
   state that a B-item (which is at the same time a request to remove
   an A item) can only be rejected by the a majority of the Council,
   and not just by the Presidency.
 * The objecting countries "forgot" to request removal of the A-item
   from the agenda. Rule 3.8 would have given any single country the
   right to have the A-item removed, because the Luxemburg presidency
   had failed to insert it more than 14 days earlier. It is difficult
   to believe that they were not aware of this possibility.
 * This is a very sad day for democracy, and casts a very dark shadow
   over the European Constitution, which will give the Council even
   more power.

More News 

  Coming up at http://wiki.ffii.org/Cons050307En

  Please stay tuned!

Contact

 Dieter Van Uytvanck dietvu at ffii org, tel. +31 6 275 879 10
 Jonas Maebe, jmaebe at ffii org, tel. +32 485 36 96 45
 Hartmut Pilch, phm at ffii org, tel. +49 89 18979927

About FFII -- http://www.ffii.org

   The Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII) is a
   non-profit association registered in several European countries, which
   is dedicated to the spread of data processing literacy. FFII supports
   the development of public information goods based on copyright, free
   competition, open standards. More than 500 members, 1,200 companies
   and 75,000 supporters have entrusted the FFII to act as their voice in
   public policy questions concerning exclusion rights (intellectual
   property) in data processing.
     _________________________________________________________________

References

[1] http://wiki.ffii.org/Cons0412En

_______________________________________________
FFII Press Releases.
(un)subscribe via http://lists.ffii.org/mailman/listinfo/news, or contact media a ffii.org for more information.

----- End forwarded message -----