[Ecommerce] EU Software Dir. is back on Jan 24

[Manon Ress]

http://kwiki.ffii.org/Fish0501En

Brussels, Wednesday 19th Jan 2005 -- The EU Software Patent Directive
has been or will be scheduled on the agenda of the Agriculture and
Fishery Meeting of the 24th of January as an A item, i.e. an item that
is to be adopted without a vote. This was announced today by officials
of the European Commission and of the EU Council Presidency at various
meetings. The entry is not on the official meeting calendar yet.

David Ellard, who is responsible for this directive at the European
Commission's Industrial Property Unit, specially announced that the
Council's political agreement on the software patent directive will be
adopted as a Common Position at the Council for Agriculture and Fishery
next monday, the 24th of January. Ellard told this today at an
Intellectual Property promotion event organized in Slovenia. Ellard
repeated the date many times at the meeting.

The same was said by Luxemburg's minister of economy and of foreign
trade Jeannot Kreck=E9 at a meeting in the legal affairs committee of the
European Parliament (JURI) this afternoon. It appears from this meeting
that the sudden insertion into the Fishery Agenda is due to a desire of
the Commission to create accomplished facts before the Parliament can
initiate a restart of the procedure according to Art 55 of its Rules of
Procedure. It is particularly noteworthy that David Ellard's boss,
Internal Market Commissioner McCreevy, has asked JURI to postpone the
discussion until after a meeting on February 2nd. At this time, JURI no
longer has the option to restart the procedure, if by then the A-item is
passed.

The Swedish Enterprise Association started spreading the same
information already this morning, whereas the Agricultural Ministry of
Sweden was unable to confirm it, saying that it was not on the Council's
official Agenda so far, as is in fact is the case.

According to Article 3 of the Council's Procedural Rules, A-items should
be placed on the agenda 2 weeks in advance. If an A-item is inserted
later, any country can demand its removal at the beginning of the
meeting. Poland made use of this right at the last Agricultural Council
on December 21st.

The FFII has covered its front page with a letter to EU ministers of
agriculture and is using what little time the Commission's surprise
tactics leaves to launch a campaign, in which it called on its
supporters to help draw attention to the matter.

As of thursday 2005-01-20, this page is being updated continuously.
Please bookmark it and come back from time to time.
National actions

     * Belgium and the Netherlands
--
Manon Anne Ress
manon.ress@cptech.org,
www.cptech.org

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