RE:[LUG] EU Vote June 12th - who to vote for

[Keith Abraham <keith@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Just received 2 replies to the emails I sent to our local EMPs.
Comment anyone?

Firstly Glyn Ford (Labour) which offers some hope.

> Dear Keith,
> Thank you for sharing your views with me and let me explain what my 
> position is.
> I, along with the Parliament, voted for limits to the patenting of 
> computer-implemented inventions. The Member States, through the 
> Council of Ministers, have chosen to ignore Parliament's views, which 
> has disappointed us greatly and we are now preparing for some very 
> tough negotiations with them.
> However, fortunately the Council of Ministers and the Commission 
> cannot ignore our views as democratically elected Members of the 
> European Parliament. I can assure you that the Parliament will defend 
> its position and there will be no final law without the agreement of 
> the Parliament. If both the Council of Ministers and the European 
> Commission refuse to reinsert Parliament's amendments, there will be 
> no Directive. Our power on this piece of legislation is very strong: 
> we can modify it or block it if we choose to do so.
> The position of the Labour MEPs remains unchanged and in the 
> negotiations we will defend Parliament's position:
> · We are not in favour of patenting of software as in the US.
> · Europe needs a uniform legal approach to stop the drifting towards 
> extending patentability to inventions, which would not have been 
> traditionally allowed, and to stop patentability of pure business 
> methods, algorithms or mathematical methods.
> · Software products as such, must not be patented.
> · Opensource software must be allowed to flourish and the Commission 
> must ensure that this Directive does not have any adverse effect on 
> opensource software and small software developers.
> · Patents and the threat of litigation must not be used as an 
> anti-competitive weapon to squeeze out small companies.
> I hope this clarifies the situation.
> Yours sincerely,
> Glyn Ford
> Glyn Ford MEP
> Tel. +32 2 284 7518/6540
> Fax: +32 2 284 9518
> www.glynford.com <http://www.glynford.com>

Secondly Graham Watson (Liberal) which merely explains the
present situation.

> Dear Mr Abrahm,
>
> Thank you for your email regarding software patents.  The proposal for a
> Directive on patentability of computer-implemented inventions is currently
> being examined by Council at first reading.  The co-decision legislative
> procedure requires that if the Council decides not accept our amendments,
> the proposal has to come back to the European Parliament.  This means that
> the Directive  was not adopted on the 17th or 18th May, and will probably
> come back to the Parliament for second reading in the Autumn.
>
> Even then, if the Parliament and Council fail to agree after a second
> reading, we will then look at the proposal again, together with the
> Commission, in a special “Conciliation Committee”.  Rest assured that when
> proposals are subject to the Co-Decision procedure it is not possible for
> governments of the Member States to disregard the view of the European
> Parliament.
>
> I would advise you, therefore, to get in contact with MEPs when this
> proposal comes back to the European Parliament for second reading.
>
> Yours sincerely,
>
> Graham Watson MEP
> Leader of the Liberal Democrat and
> Reform Party in the European Parliament
>  

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