Software Patents show even qualified majority voting is too democratic for the EU

international | eu | news report

Thursday December 16, 2004 14:56

by seedot

Yes sir, Mr. gates, right away sir

Contains partial transcripts and links to Mary Harney bullying the Belgians.

One of the key complaints about the European Union has been of the 'democratic deficit' which many see as being a fundamental flaw in the institutions of the Union.

Those who see the nation state as most democratic unit complain of the increase in qualified majority voting which allows nations to be overruled on key issues. Others point to the weaknesses in the parliament which cannot introduce legislation and in many areas has to struggle to retain any input. Still others point to the 330 page constitution, the 60,000 pages of treaties, the language and bureaucracy which serve to conceal the true purpose of much legislation.

Well, it doesn't really matter since this week the diplomats in the Permanent Representatives Committee (Corepor) have decided that even the safeguards that are in place should be ignored. The parliaments changes to the European Patents Directive, which aimed to remove software patents from the directive have been ignored. National governments such as Poland and Belgium are being overruled while the Dutch are ignoring their own parliament to push the directive through as part of their presidency. QMV is being bypassed and, in a move which seems designed to give grounds for criticism to those who attack the illogical bureaucracy of the EU it looks like the Agriculture and Fisheries council meeting will vote on the European Patents Directive.

At this stage, the parliament has a strong majority which has been won over by the anti-software patents argument from economists, IT developers, European business groups and others.

Council meetings on this have been marked by bullying and overriding the concerns of individual nations, and by ministers ignoring or lying to their parliaments. In the section of the transcripts from the meeting on 18th May printed below we see Mary Harney bullying the Belgium delegation which had started its contribution by saying:

"And that is why, not whithstanding the efforts that have being made, to try to strike a compromise at all members of the council will be able to subscribe to, we in the Belgian delegation will vote against it. We hope that it's some later juncture the concerns we have voiced will be given greater credence."

But when Minister Harney took the vote, this was overturned as below.

# IE: And Denmark? Can I hear from Denmark please?
# Denmark: I would really like to ask the commission why they couldn't accept the last sentence put forward by the Italians. Which was in the original German proposal.
# (19:13) IE: I think the Commissioner already answered that question, I'm sorry Denmark. So are you yes, no, abstain?
# DK: I think we wouldn't, we're not hap...
# IE: Can I assume you're a "yes"?
# DK: We're not happy
# IE: But are you 80% happy?
# DK: But... I think we...
# IE: We don't need you you to be totally happy. None of us are totally happy.
# DK: I know that, I know that.
# IE: If we were, we wouldn't be here
# Crowd: Laugther
# DK: I think we're not very happy, but I think we would, we would...
# IE: Thank you very much
# DK: ... we would like to see a solution today.
# IE: Thank you very much, Denmark.

It seems that next week it will be Polands turn to be bullied as the requirements of Microsoft, which has been issuing threats against government open source software projects around the world, will override the needs and wishes of European citizens and governments.

some links
IMC Links
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=67914
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=67391
External
Transcripts http://wiki.ael.be/index.php/V002.ogg
http://wiki.ael.be/index.php/V003.ogg
FFII
http://swpat.ffii.org/log/04/cons1215/index.en.html