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."