Best Recipes Ever Just another WordPress site

Date: Fri, 4 Mar 2005 16:38:37 +0100 PRESS RELEASE FFII — [ Europe / economy / ICT ] ======================================================================== Danish Parliament obliges Minister to renegotiate software patents in Council ======================================================================== Copenhague, 4 March 2005 — The Danish Minister of Economic and Industry Affairs Bent Bentsen has been obliged by the Danish Parliament EU Committee to reopen the software patents discussion in the EU Council of Ministers. Therefore, the directive cannot be adopted as an A-item (formal point) at the Competition Council meeting on Monday. Minister Bentsen (Conservatives) did not want to reopen discussions, but the minority government he is part of was overruled by a coalition consisting of a.o. Social Democrates and the Social Liberal Party in the Parliament’s EU Affairs Committee. Lone Dybkjær from Det Radikale Venstre (Social Liberal Party) says the minister is obliged to follow this decision to ask to take the A-item off the agenda. Moreover, the minister should also ask to put it as a B-item at a subsequent Council meeting. This means that the directive will again appear on the Council table as a discussion point, and not just something which should be formally adopted. This would immediately fulfill the main concern which moved the European Parliament to request a restart of the directive to the Commission: lack of a proper first reading in the Council. Lone Dybkjær said «We hope Denmark will be supported by Sweden in this matter», referring to the earlier request to reopen discussions by the Swedish liberals request. Bentsen is certain to find support from his Polish colleague Kleiber, who said earlier today in the Polish Gospodarka Gazeta «I am in constant contact with the Danish minister of science. He seriously considers blocking the directive on Monday.» Arda Gerkens, a Dutch MP of the Socialistische Partij who supported this motion and introduced several related motions before in the Dutch parliament added: «I am very happy to see Denmark taking this step. Thanks to the motion we adopted yesterday, the Netherlands will support this move.» Hartmut Pilch, President of FFII, concluded: It was clearly wrong to count Denmark as 80% happy in May 2004. So long as the will of national legislatures is not respected by the ministers who conclude «political agreements», the Council should not be able to count on the irreversibility of these agreements. It is now of course still possible for a majority of Council members to decline the wish of Denmark and Poland and insist on their zombie agreement of May 2004, but that does not seem very likely. Today is a turning point in the history of the directive, and hopefully historians will also mark this day as a turning point in the history of Parliamentary Democracy in Europe. ======================================================================== Pan-European support for new discussions in Council and EP restart ======================================================================== – Polish minister calls for B-item support in Council http://wiki.ffii.org/Kleiber050304En – Dutch Parliament: if another state asks for B-item, make no objections http://wiki.vrijschrift.nl/Motions050303 – Munich: Mayor Ude wants government to start renegotiations in Council http://wiki.ffii.org/Muenchen050303En – Parti Socialiste (Belgium): EP restart is victory, still have to convince the Council http://www.ps.be/index.cfm?R_ID=1010&Content_ID=8982672 – Maria Berger MEP: Barroso playing high-stakes poker with EP http://www.spe.at/berger/3/a.html#pm19 – Dr. Günter Krings (German conservatives) derides Commission for restart refusal http://www.nosoftwarepatents.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=414 – Danish Parliamentary Majority Against Council Agreement http://wiki.ffii.org/Adelskov050224En – Swedish Liberals call for Renegotiation (B-Item) in Council http://wiki.ffii.org/Selib0502En – Spanish senate unanimously against software patents http://wiki.ffii.org/Senado050208En – UEAPME (represents 11 million European SMEs) supports EP restart http://www.eubusiness.com/press/ueapme.2005-02-08 – CEA-PME (represents 500,000 European SMEs) supports EP restart http://wiki.ffii.org/Ceapme050201En – German minister Zypries encourages new discussions in Council http://wiki.ffii.org/Zypries041221En ======================================================================== Extra information ======================================================================== – Permanent link to this press release http://wiki.ffii.org/Dkparl050304En – Article in Gazeta Wyborcza quoting Mr. Kleiber (Polish) http://gospodarka.gazeta.pl/gospodarka/1,52981,2583315.html ======================================================================== Contact ======================================================================== Hartmut Pilch, Munich Office phm@ffii.org tel. +49 (0)89 18979927 Erik Josefsson, Brussels Office erjos@ffii.org tel. +32 (0)485 83 21 26 Jonas Maebe, Board Member jmaebe@ffii.org tel. +32 (0)485 36 96 45 ======================================================================== About the 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 80,000 supporters have entrusted the FFII to act as their voice in public policy questions concerning exclusion rights (intellectual property) in data processing. — Best regards Anne — Anne Østergaard ]]>