pseudoDemocracy

international | eu | press release Monday December 13, 2004 21:16 by EU

EU fails in democracy

In Brussels, preparations are
in full swing to place the planned
directive on the patentability
of "computer-implemented
inventions" under the radar. The
approval of the EU
Council of Ministers' controversial version
of the directive is
on the agenda of one of the last meetings of the ministers this year.
The agenda doesn't even precise, which meeting it applies to. A
document
by the Council of the European Union
lately published indicates
that the so-called Mertens
Group is taking concrete steps
towards preparing the official
adoption of the Council
of Ministers' common position of
the middle of May of this year,
but the political agreement of May 18th on the proposed directive can
no longer be formally adopted as the common position of the EU
Council. Should the heads and deputy heads of missions of EU member
states that make up the "COREPER"
have no objections to the position of the EU Competitiveness Council
of this spring, the directive might
be formally adopted without
debate under the aegis of the
Dutch Presidency of the Council of
the European Union at the very last minute before Christmas at
a
meeting of Environment Ministers or
of those responsible
for Agriculture and Fisheries.
The only Council meetings left under
the Dutch Presidency are one on
Environment on 20 December and one on Agriculture and Fisheries on
21-22 December.
If the EU Council adopted the
legislative proposal of May 18th, it
would do so without democratic
legitimacy. The idea of a
debateless
and voteless adoption of an "A item" is only to speed up
and simplify the process if a qualified majority is in place. In this
particular case, there isn't.
As of November 1st, new voting
weights apply in the EU under the
Act of Accession. The collective number of votes of all countries
that affirmatively supported the legislative proposal on May 18th
amounts to 216, falling short of the required 232. It would set a
more than regrettable precedent for European democracy if the EU
Council adopted a Common Position on an insufficient basis.
This scheduling on the part of
the Council of Ministers - and the
Christmas surprise it bodes - is provoking indignation among
opponents of software patents. Thus Laura Creighton, vice-president
of the Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII)
and herself a software entrepreneur has vociferously criticized the
"last minute" maneuvering. Only the "most committed
opponent to the democratic process" could, in her opinion,
believe that racing the paper through with an A-item approval the
week before Christmas in a meeting of ministers whose remits do not
extend to the topic in question was the proper response to the
"widespread consensus” rejecting the Council's position.
Hence
Ms. Creighton's bitter comment on the move planned by these
representatives of governments: "The bad smell coming from
Brussels has nothing to do with the fish."
Further information:
http://kwiki.ffii.org/Cons041213En
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/0,39020381,39180705,00.htm
http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/54199
http://kwiki.ffii.org/index.cgi?Polon0411En
http://www.nosoftwarepatents.com/en/m/intro/app0411.html