[LUGOS] [Fwd: [ffii] Polish Science and Informatisation Minister: "We cannot fight alone"]

[Andraz Tori]

kaj ko bi enkrat slovenija imela kaj za povedat v tej prekleti evropi?





-------- Forwarded Message --------
Od: Jonas Maebe <jmaebe at ffii.org>
Za: news at ffii.org
Zadeva: [ffii] Polish Science and Informatisation Minister: "We cannot
fight alone"
Datum: Fri, 4 Mar 2005 09:50:57 +0100
PRESS RELEASE FFII -- [ Europe / economy / ICT ]

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Polish Science and Informatisation Minister: "We cannot fight alone"
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Warsaw, 4 March 2005 -- The Polish minister for science and
informatisation Kleiber says that Poland will support a request for a
B-item (discussion) on software patents at the Council meeting on Monday
7 March if anyone asks for one, but they will not take the initiative.
His main message is: Poland cannot fight alone.

It is clear that the current proposal no longer has the support of
Poland, even if it ever had. This means that there is no qualified
majority anymore, and that pushing the current Council text through
would be in violation of the Council's own rules of procedure. After
all, a qualified majority must exist when the Common Position is
adopted. Their political agreement has no legal value whatsoever.

Nevertheless, Poland clearly invites other governments, such as the
German and Danish ones, to take the lead. If no one takes the
initiative to ask for a new vote, the silence will be interpreted as
consent to the votes as recorded on 18 May 2004 and thus the Common
Position will be adopted.

One often heard argument against reopening discussions, is that this
would make any political agreement reached in the future worthless.
The reasoning is that any country could always reopen discussions
afterwards. This is however not true. Rule 3.8 of the Council's Rules
of Procedure clearly states that any country can reopen the
discussions, unless the Council decides otherwise.

This means that the Council, with a simple majority, can decline a
request for renewed discussions. As such, not even a small group of
obstructing states can block the Council by continuously reopening an
issue on which a political agreement has been reached previously.

Jonas Maebe, FFII board member, concludes:

  "There no longer is any excuse not to reopen discussions. Even in the
   the European Parliament, both opponents and proponents of software
   patents are in favour of interrupting the current procedure. The
   former because they don't like the current Council text, the latter
   because they are afraid the Commission's restart refusal will only
   strengthen the opposition.

   I am really wondering who or what is the actual driving force behind
   the current crash course of both the Council and the Commission."

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Pan-European support for new discussions in Council and EP restart
========================================================================

- 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


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Extra information
========================================================================

- Permanent link to this press release
  http://wiki.ffii.org/Kleber050304En

- Article in Gazeta Wyborcza quoting Mr. Kleiber (Polish)
  http://gospodarka.gazeta.pl/gospodarka/1,52981,2583315.html

- Council's rules of procedure
  http://tinyurl.com/6kklm

- Prof. Karl-Friedrich Lenz: Council too important to be governed by
   "unwritten rules"
  http://k.lenz.name/LB/archives/000994.html

========================================================================
Contact
========================================================================

Hartmut Pilch, Munich Office
phm at ffii.org
tel. +49 (0)89 18979927

Erik Josefsson, Brussels Office
erjos at ffii.org
tel. +32 (0)485 83 21 26

Jonas Maebe, Board Member
jmaebe at 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.


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