The draft, better known as the controversial software patents
Directive, was widely expected to be rubber-stamped by the Council
yesterday at a meeting of the Agriculture and Fisheries Commission
– the last Council meeting before the end of the year and the end
of the Dutch EU Presidency.
Problems arose when, according to an article by The Register, a
plea to Germany's Minister from the Mayor of Munich, asking that
the Directive be removed from the Commission's agenda altogether,
resulted in a short delay in the vote. Mayor Christian Ude argued
that the proposal merited further discussion rather than a
rubber-stamping.
This was then followed by a request from the Polish Government
that the vote be postponed, as, according to reports, it needed
more time to consider its position. That request was granted.
"Poland is determined to favour unambiguous phrasing in European
Community law," said Wlodzimierz Marcinski, Poland's undersecretary
of state for Science and IT, according to Reuters.
Marcinski's appearance at the meeting, replacing the Polish
permanent representative at the EU, was a surprise. According to
anti-software patent group the Foundation for a Free Information
Infrastructure (FFII), the change was necessary because the
permanent representative had been put under great pressure by the
Dutch Presidency and had been rather reluctant to communicate the
view of the Polish government.
This is the second time that the vote, which was due to be
considered by the Council as an "A" item on its agenda (i.e. the
proposals would be voted through without discussion), has been
delayed.
In November the Polish Government announced that it could no
longer support the text agreed upon by the Council of Ministers in
May and another month of discussions on the text followed. It
hadn't actually delayed a vote; but it appeared to disrupt
progress.
Anti-patent activists, concerned that the Directive risks
bringing to Europe the more liberal regime of software and business
method patenting that exists in the US, welcomed the delay.
"Now Europe has the opportunity to have a constructive debate on
the severe shortcomings of the current Council text, under the new
Luxembourgian EU presidency next year," Florian Mueller, campaign
manager of NoSoftwarePatents.com told ZDNet UK.
"The fact that the unilateral declarations of concern by member
states contained more text than the actual directive itself only
underlines the proposed text's woeful lack of support and lack of
democratic legitimacy," said James Heald of the FFII.
"The FFII hopes that, inspired by today's developments, the
Council of Ministers will now go back and thoroughly revise the
text, to make it quite clear what they do and what they do not want
to see patented," he added.
But the European Information, Communications and Consumer
Electronics Technology Industry Association (EICTA), expressed
extreme disappointment at the delay.
"Council's failure today constitutes a worrying setback for
innovation in Europe," said EICTA Director General Mark
MacGann.
"We are dealing with legislation that was
tabled by the Commission 30 months ago – how long do governments
need in order to create a stable and harmonised legal environment
that supports innovation in the European Union? The last thing we
need is an extension of legal uncertainty."
